Ukrainians imported 211,000 cars from Europe on preferential terms, and the number of imported cars increased by 48,000 in two weeks, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on finance, tax and customs policy, said.
“As of June 27, 211,000 cars entered Ukraine under preferential customs clearance. Over the past 2 weeks, an additional 48,000 cars have been brought in,” he said on the Telegram channel on Monday.
The total amount of the benefits provided amounted to UAH 23.5 billion, he added.
After the news about the abolition of benefits from July 1, as envisaged by the legislative changes adopted by the Parliament, the pace of car imports has increased significantly. On weekdays in June, an average of 4.7 thousand cars are imported per day compared to 3.2 thousand in May, the People’s Deputy specified.
“In fact, it would probably be many times more, the throughput capacity of foreign and our customs limits. To understand, there are now a line of 1000 cars and 9.5 km at the same Budomez-Grushev, the Polish side passes very slowly. At the checkpoint” Yagodin “The queue is generally 40 km,” Zheleznyak pointed out.
“It is also significant that four times more than usual was imported over the weekend. This Saturday, 2,400 cars drove in, although this figure was usually less than 650 cars on weekends,” he added.
On the Ukrainian-Hungarian section of the border in the Transcarpathian region, there is a significant increase in cars to enter Ukraine, said the head of the Transcarpathian regional state administration Viktor Mikita.
“In the case of Hungary, these queues stretched for several kilometers and sometimes reach 800 cars. The situation on the Slovak-Ukrainian border is somewhat better, but it also causes concern. People are in vehicles for several days, in the heat and without proper sanitary conditions,” Mikita wrote on Facebook.
He noted that queues are formed only for vehicles that are sent to Ukraine for customs clearance. General traffic, tourists and transit moves calmly, there are almost no queues.
“As for the queue that has arisen, there are a number of objective and subjective factors. Traffic has increased hundreds of times, cars for customs clearance go not only from Hungary, but also from the Baltic states, Poland and others. A significant part of the car does not have properly executed documents, which greatly complicates the pass and registration. There are other operational factors that require immediate optimization,” Mikita said.
Ukrainians have reduced the rate of importing cars from Europe on preferential terms: on average, 2.65 thousand cars entered per day in early June compared to 4-5 thousand in May on a weekday, said the deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance , tax and customs policy Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
“As of June 6, 140,310 cars were imported from us. The total amount of the tax rebate was provided for UAH 15.4 billion,” he said on the Telegram channel on Monday.
According to him, the largest number of such cars drove through the Volyn customs – almost 36 thousand, followed by Lviv customs, through which over 27 thousand cars drove in and Rivne customs – almost 14 thousand cars.
He added that, excluding benefits for cars, the budget received less revenue from duties and VAT on imports of UAH 9.17 billion.
As reported, from April 6, the Verkhovna Rada exempted the import of goods to Ukraine from import duties and VAT for single tax payers of the first and third groups, paying tax at a rate of 2% of turnover, and also established a simplified form of customs clearance. The deputies also completely exempted the import of vehicles by citizens, as well as subjects of the simplified system, from taxation.
At the same time, at the end of May, the Cabinet of Ministers registered in the Verkhovna Rada draft law No. 7418 on the return of all customs duties and VAT on imported goods, including cars. In particular, it is proposed to cancel the customs-free import of cars from July 1.
According to the State Border Service, over the past two weeks, about 18.6 thousand cars cross the western border of Ukraine in both directions every day.
Passengers of Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) can now send their cars from Kyiv to Uzhgorod and back by train No. 29/30 Kyiv – Uzhgorod, UZ reports in its Telegram channel.
It is noted that the cost of transportation is about UAH 1.4 thousand per ton of weight. You can arrange transportation of a car at the box office of the stations.
In addition, it is reported that car carriers are already running on the routes Kyiv – Lvov – Kyiv, Dnepr – Lvov – Dnepr, Kharkiv – Lvov – Kharkiv and Lvov – Odessa – Lviv.
According to the company, UZ has already transported 1,863 vehicles by car carriers during the war.
The Eurocar plant (Solomonovo, Transcarpathian region) will resume production of ŠKODA cars from June this year, which was suspended with the start of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, the company’s press service reported.
“The Eurocar company, the official distributor of ŠKODA cars in Ukraine, announces the resumption of taking orders and production. The Eurocar plant in Transcarpathia will start working again in June,” the distributor’s website said on Thursday.
Prices and configurations of cars available for order are posted on the distributor’s website, the official delivery time is up to 280 days, but in fact it will depend on the number of orders in the queue and may be less. Vehicles in stock that were in stock until February 24th are also available for purchase.
“ŠKODA dealerships work depending on the situation in the regions where they are located. The warranty for cars during martial law in Ukraine is maintained in case of untimely completion of scheduled maintenance, provided that the level of technical fluids is observed,” the message says.
The Eurocar plant, the official manufacturer of Škoda cars in Ukraine, began producing cars in 2001, investments in the creation of the plant amounted to $250 million. Capacities for small-scale assembly of cars were created, buildings for welding and painting shops were built.
According to the Ukravtoprom association, in 2021 the plant assembled 3,476 vehicles, which is 2.7% more than a year earlier.
As reported, at present, the Eurocar plant operates as a humanitarian logistics hub, as well as a center for helping employees, with the involvement of a network of contacts of foreign partners as external support.
According to the data of the National Commission for Securities and Stock Market (NSSMC), as of the fourth quarter of 2021, more than 68.84% of the shares of Eurocar JSC are owned by Atoll Holding JSC, the beneficiary-controller of which is Oleg Boyarin, another 20% are owned by LLC “Prostir Capital” (Kyiv), 10% – Polish “Iberia Motor Company”.
The Cabinet of Ministers has determined three checkpoints for the movement of cars purchased abroad: “Ustilug” and “Grushev” on the Polish border and “Maly Berezny” on the Slovak one.
The corresponding order of the Cabinet of Ministers dated May 3, 2022 No. 354-r was published on the government portal.
As reported, since April 25, Ukraine has limited the number of checkpoints for the import of cars with foreign registration for their own needs. The crossing of such vehicles became available at the Ugrinov, Grushev, Smelnitsa and Ustilug checkpoints (on the Polish border), as well as through Maly Berezny on the Slovak border and through Davinkovoe and Kosino on the Hungarian border. This decision was due to the appearance of queues at checkpoints after the Verkhovna Rada removed the need to pay customs duties, VAT and excise for such imports.
