Ukraine’s largest mobile operator “Kyivstar” in a year of war paid 10.7 billion UAH of taxes and invested in technological development of 3.5 billion UAH, the president of the company, Alexander Komarov said on Facebook.
The second largest operator “Vodafone Ukraine” reported paying 4.97 billion UAH of taxes and fees in 2022 and almost 4 billion UAH of investments in support and development of telecom infrastructure in Ukraine.
“92% of the network is working as usual today. This is an incredible result, given that 8% are in the occupied territories. At the same time we returned connection to 815 settlements, where we built more than 600 base stations (BS). More 700 new base stations of 4G standard were built, which increased the 4G coverage by 20%”, – wrote Komarov.
He added that the generating capacity of Kyivstar reached 39.2 MW thanks to increase of the number of diesel generators by 75% and installation of 18 thousand new batteries.
“As of today 88% of the network in the country is working in normal mode” – stated “Vodafone Ukraine”.
According to the company, 581 base stations were resumed and 2.9 thousand km of fiber-optic cable were repaired, thanks to which it was possible to restore the availability of services to people in 759 settlements of the country.
“Vodafone Ukraine” also reported that 723 base stations were launched in new locations, 414 additional mobile generators were purchased and 24.71 thousand batteries were replaced.
Ukrainian business paid 80 billion UAH more in taxes in 2022 than in peaceful 2021, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said.
“Despite continued hostilities and enemy attacks, we will do everything possible to make 2023 the first step for a great recovery of the Ukrainian economy. In 2022, we did the impossible and financed absolutely all budget expenditures. In total, these expenditures amounted to about 2.7 trillion UAH,” Shmygal said at a government meeting on Friday.
According to him, Ukrainian citizens and businesses last year paid more than 900 billion UAH to the state budget, another 425 billion UAH were paid to the Pension Fund and social insurance funds.
“Due to the issue of military bonds, about 600 billion UAH were received. We are grateful to the citizens and businesses who bought these bonds and thus invested in a strong army and a stable state,” the prime minister added.
Shmygal thanked Ukrainian businesses, which paid 80 billion more in taxes in 2022 than in 2021.
“Your steadfastness, patriotism, adaptability and social responsibility allowed to keep the economy of Ukraine afloat. 2023 should be the year of our victory and the year of the beginning of the recovery of our economy. We work together for this,” he concluded.
Nova Poshta Group paid more than 5 billion hryvnias of taxes and duties to the budgets of all levels in 2022.
Vladimir Popershnyuk, co-owner of Nova Poshta, said this in his New Year’s greeting to the company.
He also noted that the company continues to develop and open international offices even during the active phase of the war.
For his part, the CEO of NovaBox, Alexander Lisovets, said that the company will soon present the company’s union postal terminals in Poland.
As it was reported, in 2021 Nova Poshta paid to the budget of all levels more than 6.4 billion UAH of taxes and duties, which is 26% more than in 2020.
Nova Poshta includes, in particular, Nova Poshta, NP Logistics, NovaPay and Nova Poshta Global.
The network includes about 10 thousand branches all over Ukraine.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kyivstar mobile operator has paid UAH 4.246 billion in taxes and fees to the state budget, including UAH 1.682 billion ahead of schedule, the company’s press service said on Tuesday.
According to the operator, today Kyivstar has connected more than 1,200 bomb shelters in different cities of the country to free wired Internet, and also transmitted more than 300 million State Emergency Service messages with vital information to the population.
In addition, the company transferred over UAH 33 million to the humanitarian needs of the military, hospitals, the elderly and those affected by the war. The operator’s subscribers, using short numbers and the Smart Money service, transferred more than UAH 3.2 million for humanitarian needs of hospitals and the military, the press service clarifies.
“More than 90% of the company’s network functions stably and provides subscribers with communication and high-speed Internet services. To do this, in the first quarter of 2022, the operator invested UAH 659 million in the development of communications. During the hostilities, the company built 110 new mobile communication facilities and improved 4G communications in 3,500 settlements,” the report says.
According to the operator, during the war, the company’s subscribers were provided with free services worth UAH 429 million. Subscribers in 30 countries of the world receive communication services at the same tariffs as in Ukraine.
In addition, Kyivstar provides doctors working in risk areas with free mobile communications.
In March-April 2022, the Synevo laboratory paid UAH 35 million in taxes and fees to the budget, commercial director of the Synevo laboratory Mykola Skavronsky said.
“For March and April 2022, the Synevo company still paid about UAH 35 million in taxes and fees to the state,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Skavronsky also said that in March and April 2022, the Synevo laboratory paid UAH 67 million to its employees “1.5 times more money than the entire revenue for these two months”, the total cash receipts of Synevo during this time amounted to UAH 47 million.
“Financial support for our employees in the first months of the war was provided exclusively at the expense of Synevo’s own reserves,” Skavronsky wrote.
Synevo is the largest network of laboratories in Ukraine, part of the Swedish medical holding Medicover. The Synevo network includes 320 laboratory centers operating in 125 settlements of Ukraine, as well as eight laboratories that perform more than 1,000 types of tests.
Every year, the company’s laboratory centers serve more than 4 million customers.
The state should immediately stop the practice of registering tax invoices in Ukraine, including the assessment of criteria for classifying enterprises as those with risky activities, and also replacing value added tax (VAT) with a tax on withdrawn capital.
Dmytro Nikiforov, the owner and founder of AT Market LLC (Kyiv), which is engaged in bottling high-mountainous Carpathian water under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Dzherelna Vysokohirna, expressed such an opinion in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
At the same time, he believes that the rate of taxes levied in the country is feasible for business and does not need to be reduced.
“We need to immediately kill this ‘hydra,’ which is called the registration of tax invoices. This is the tool by which thieving tax officials and MP who back them ‘wash out’ the turnover from businesses in the amount of VAT. The state must immediately stop the practice of registering tax invoices, which does not exist anywhere in the world,” Nikiforov said.
According to him, the practice of registering tax invoices and the procedure for determining the criteria for classifying the activities of enterprises as risky harm business, washing out its working capital, and should be stopped immediately.
“There is no need to lower taxes, they are feasible. By and large, VAT should be abolished in principle, and a clear and understandable turnover tax and non-refundable sales tax should be introduced. Because any refundable tax like VAT is a so-called square tax and creates corruption risks, but such people control this issue that it is impossible to move it,” the businessman specified.
“Therefore, the abolition of VAT and income tax with a replacement for a tax on withdrawn capital is what the state should do for business. Without this, business will not be cured, no matter how it is stuffed with loans. All funding is broken down by the fact that in the existing paradigm it simply cannot work,” Nikiforov added.
As reported, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko supports restoring the VAT administration system with automatic cash reimbursement, “even if it is painful and requires payment deferral.”
“For some reason, decisions were made that actually broke the current system of registering tax invoices, checking risks and automatic budgetary VAT refunds. In fact, since March, our system for registering tax invoices has not been working … I am a supporter of the system of automatic VAT refunds working, and business receiving funds,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
On February 28, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine established the possibility of automatic registration of tax invoices for certain types of agribusiness and food industry enterprises, which will allow them to submit documentation without bureaucratic delays.
According to Roman Leschenko, who at that time was the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, after February 28, tax invoices of legal entities growing crops, farm animals and poultry, engaged in fishing, and processing milk, butter and cottage cheese are automatically registered.
In addition, the list includes all enterprises producing meat, fruit and vegetable juices, vegetable oil, animal fats, edible fats; products of the flour-grinding industry; bread and bakery products, flour confectionery, cakes and pastries; cocoa, chocolate, sugar confectionery; tea and coffee; spices and seasonings; prepared food and dishes; baby and dietary food; prepared feed for animals kept on farms; soft drinks and other bottled waters.
