In 2020, the Business Ombudsman Council (BOC) received 1,193 complaints about work of the State Tax Service, State Customs Service and State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, which is 120 complaints more than in 2019, and a total of 1,737 complaints were received during the year, which is 91 more than a year ago.
“In 2020, the Business Ombudsman Council received 1737 complaints and completed the investigation of 1159 cases, which is 9% and 2% more than in 2019 respectively,” BOC said in its annual report published on Wednesday.
In total, four subjects of appeals accounted for 85% of business complaints about violations of state bodies: tax issues (64%), actions of law enforcement agencies (12%), actions of state regulators (5%) and customs issues (4%), according to the report.
“Despite the moratorium on most tax audits and reduction of complaints on this subject, the number of business appeals on tax issues increased by 14% in comparison with 2019 (from 981 to 1117 appeals). In particular, the number of complaints about tax invoices suspension tripled (from 95 to 273), by 63% on inclusion in risky taxpayers’ lists (from 127 to 207), by 36% – on non-enforcement of court decisions on tax invoices registration (from 108 to 147),” BOC said.
Complaints were predominantly lodged by Ukrainian companies (89%), mostly small and medium-sized businesses (76%). Traditionally, the most active in terms of the number of complaints were wholesalers (26%), manufacturing (12%), agribusiness (12%), real estate (11%) and individual entrepreneurs (10%) representatives.
In 2020, with the adoption of respective laws and regulations, the following were implemented: a mechanism to inform the company of the reasons for inclusion in the risky taxpayers lists and ways to be removed therefrom was introduced; regular work of the Expert Council on preparation of generalized tax consultations was resumed; renewal of electronic VAT administration system indicators for taxpayers, whose registration was canceled and subsequently renewed, was provided.
Business Ombudsman Marcin Święcicki said that BOC is waiting for a new version of the bill on the business ombudsman.
“A new version of the draft law on the Business Ombudsman Institution, which takes into account all the key comments of MPs and stakeholders, is awaiting registration in the Verkhovna Rada. The law should stabilize the BOC activities, regulate its cooperation with complainants and state bodies, as well as clearly define the rights and responsibilities of the institution,” the press service said, citing Święcicki.
U.S. President Trump ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after months of complaints from allies outside the administration, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kyiv to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Trump’s personal lawyer Giuliani told the newspaper that Yovanovitch was biased against the U.S. president in private conversations and prevented Ukraine from conducting an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.
In addition, the newspaper reports that Giuliani handed over to the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a nine-page document dated March 28 containing a schedule of Biden’s business meetings in Ukraine.
The document also claimed that Yovanovitch was very close to the former vice president.
It is noted that although the U.S. Department of State presented Yovanovitch’s departure from Ukraine in May as planned, her tenure as ambassador was three months shorter than the usual three-year term.
Earlier, U.S. media reported that Trump tried in a telephone conversation on July 25 to convince Zelensky of the need to launch an investigation against Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
An American intelligence officer complained in writing, and members of the U.S. Congress received the complaint for review. The complaint of intelligence officer statement prompted Democrats in the House of Representatives to initiate impeachment hearings against Trump.
In addition to U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch, democrats also requested State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, State Department counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland appear for depositions at the Congress.
On Thursday, Trump explicitly called on Ukraine and China to launch investigations into the activities of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his companies.
The National Commission for the State Regulation of the Financial Services Market received 2,598 complaints about the work of insurance companies in February-July 2019, which is 1.3% (62) less than for the same period 2018, according to the website of the regulator.
According to the commission, the leaders in the number of complaints received were ASKA (158, UAH 6.17 million paid), Omega Insurance Company (173, UAH 8.99 million paid), Oranta Insurance Company (136, UAH 2.71 million), and U.S.I. (88, UAH 1.3 million).
According to the regulator, a total of 555 complaints were received against these companies over the specified period. The total amount of insurance claim fee payments based on the results of consideration of applications was UAH 19.17 million.
In general, the total amount of insurance compensation by insurance companies following the consideration by the commission of applications for the indicated period was UAH 44.57 million.
The commission said complaints came from individuals and legal entities, including people’s deputies, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Office of the President, parliamentary committees, ministries, and departments.
The National Commission for the Financial Service Markets Regulation through January-June 2019 received 2,537 complaints concerned insurance companies, which was 3.1% less during the similar period of 2018.
Leaders in the number of complaints wereOmega (157, UAH 8.71 million was additionally paid), Halytska (155, UAH 1.29 million), Oranta (140, UAH 2.7 million), and ASKA (129, UAH 5.99 million).
Some 581 complaints were received against these insurance companies. These companies paid UAH 18.69 million after consideration of complaints by the commission.
Total additional payments by insurers after consideration of complaints over the period reached UAH 48.92 million.
The commission said that complaints arrived from individuals and legal entities, including people’s deputies, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Presidential Administration, parliamentary committees, ministries and agencies.
