The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved some fiscal incentives for the development of electric transport in Ukraine, in particular, VAT and import duty exemption from 2021 until 2028 for equipment and spare parts for own production of electric transport (passenger cars, electric buses, electric trucks and special-purpose vehicles).
Bill No. 3476 amending the Tax Code and bill No. 3477 amending the Customs Code were passed at the first reading by 316 and 308 lawmakers respectively.
The proposed exemption will not apply only to equipment for the production of trolleybuses, because their output has already been established in Ukraine.
In addition, bill No. 3476 proposes to exempt the electrical industry companies selling electric motors for the production of electric vehicles (with the exception of trolleybuses), lithium-ion batteries, chargers, as well as automobile companies selling electric cars of their own production from paying income tax until December 31, 2033.
The bill proposes to extend or expand benefits for importers and buyers of electric vehicles.
It is proposed, in particular, to extend the VAT exemption for import and/or supply of electric cars until December 31, 2025 (currently the benefit is valid until the end of 2022).
A buyer of an electric car before December 31, 2030 is also offered to be exempted from paying the mandatory pension insurance fee, be provided with a tax discount on the payment of personal income tax, but these standards are proposed to be introduced from January 1, 2026.
According to an explanatory note to the bills, there is a sufficient industrial potential of Ukraine in the production of electric vehicles. In particular, there are five bus plants, a truck plant, and the facilities, which produce 300,000 passenger cars at three plants.
However, today the government is stimulating the import of electric vehicles, not their production. In particular, from January 1, 2016, there is no import duty, exemption from VAT is extended until 2022 and the excise rate is set at EUR 1 per 1 kW/h of battery capacity.
“The introduction of preferential taxation increased the import of electric vehicles from 1,706 vehicles in 2016 to 7,542 vehicles in 2019, but used electric vehicles are dominating in the market (93% in 2019),” the authors of the bills said.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES, EQUIPMENT, IMPORTED, PARLIAMENT, PRODUCTION
A plane chartered by PJSC Donbasenergo on April 19 delivered 12 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) to combat COVID-19 from the Chinese city of Chengdu (Sichuan Province), the company’s press service has said.
According to its data, in particular, the cargo included 15,000 reusable protective suits for doctors, 500,000 disposable masks, 400,000 disposable gloves, 150,000 respirators, 20,000 glasses and protective shields, and 800 non-contact thermometers.
“All these means are intended to protect the public and medical personnel working in the difficult conditions of confronting the deadly disease. Donbasenergo thanks partners from Dongfang Electric International Corporation (Chengdu) who helped implement this difficult project,” the company said.
It is planned that on April 21 most of the PPE will be transferred to the department of health of Donetsk region.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company has sent UAH 6 million to buy equipment for the reference laboratory of the Public Health Center, which will be used to diagnose the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
As the company told Interfax-Ukraine, the equipment will allow quickly determining the presence or absence of the coronavirus disease pathogens in the samples obtained, using modern methods.
The first unit is Thermo Fisher Scitific Nucleic automatic acid extraction workstation with consumables for 20,000 samples. It helps prepare samples for analysis.
The second unit is Bio-Rad CFX 96 PCR detection system, which already directly determines the DNA of the virus, as well as test systems for it.
The equipment was purchased at the initiative of Biopharma co-owners Kostiantyn Yefymenko and Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
The Public Health Center said that the number of samples sent for verification is growing daily, so new equipment will allow quick testing.
The complex, which will be launched on Saturday, allows processing up to 100 samples in 60 minutes that is, up to 2,000 per day.
Earlier, Biopharma transferred the necessary equipment for UAH 5 million for the Bila Tserkva hospital three. In total, Biopharma sent more than UAH 11 million to support measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
BIOPHARMA, EQUIPMENT, HEALTH CENTER, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY, PUBLIC
JSC Turboatom (Kharkiv) in April plans to deliver a first modernized rotor under a contract to modernize high- and medium-press cylinders of reactor two of Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant for the total amount of UAH 300 million.
According to a report on Turboatom’s website, the contract was signed on February 25 by Turboatom Director General Viktor Subotin and Director of the Atomkomplekt division of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Ruslan Zhmudsky.
According to Subotin, the signed agreement is the first contract to modernize the flow section of this type of turbine in Ukraine. The company has already performed similar work for customers outside the country, including at reactor five of Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria).
“An entire program to modernize the flow sections of the reactors of Ukraine, both of our turbines and of Russian ones, is ahead,” the press service said, citing Subotin.
In turn, Zhmudsky said that the signed contract is part of the approved five-year modernization program.
“The program is designed until 2024, and in the situation that has developed now (namely, lack of funding for the construction of new reactors), the modernization of existing equipment will give us up to 10% of additional capacity,” he said.
According to Deputy Director General of Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP Andriy Petruk, the plant has been using Turboatom’s equipment for many years.
“The most important thing for us is the import substitution program, with which Turboatom helps us. The modernization, the contract for which has been signed, will increase the electric power by approximately 100 MW,” he said.
According to Turboatom General Designer Yevhen Levchenko, the five-year program provides for the modernization of seven more of the same reactors: one at Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP and six at Zaporizhia NPP.
“The next step is the modernization not of our turbines, but of the turbines manufactured by Russia’s Power Machines,” he added.
State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) Director Roman Truba has said the next questioning of ex-President Petro Poroshenko may be conducted with the assistance of lie-detecting equipment. “We don’t rule out that the next interrogation could take place with the use of lie-detecting equipment. There is nothing awful about this. All our employees take lie-detector tests every year,” Truba said on his Telegram channel.
Truba said Poroshenko was questioned for two hours on Monday about possible tax evasion involving the acquisition of the Pryamiy TV channel.
Unidentified people near SBI tried to hit Poroshenko with eggs when he left the SBI building on Monday.
Rallies were held for and against Poroshenko before and after he was questioned.
Unnamed men who obviously want Poroshenko to face criminal charges threw eggs at him when he was leaving the SBI building, but the eggs mainly hit journalists. Police intervened, but the hooligans escaped. Poroshenko, who was accompanied by his son Mykhailo and daughter Yevhenia, was unhurt. As reported, on July 25, four unknown men attempted to assault Poroshenko after he was questioned in Kyiv. The men escaped.
Aurum Group, a diversified industrial and investment group, in the current year has already invested over UAH 16.1 million within the framework of the program for agricultural equipment modernization, a press release of the group reads.
“Developing the agricultural sector, we plan to use innovative agricultural technologies and this year we have invested more than UAH 16.1 million in modernization of agricultural equipment. Part of these funds is the group’s own resources, as well as bank financing,” founder of the group Olena Lebedeva said.
Today, Aurum Group’s agricultural enterprises cultivate more than 12,000 hectares of land.
“Since 2018, FUIB has been working with Aurum Group to finance building freight railcars based on Diesel Plant, and in 2019 they began cooperation with the agribusinesses of the group: the bank transferred agricultural equipment worth UAH 12.4 million to Aurum Trans under the terms of financial leasing,” head of the financing leasing department at FUIB Volodymyr Rudenko said.
Aurum Group was registered at the end of 2016. Its core business is engineering, rail freight transportation, industrial pump building, chemical industry, investment in real estate, and the agricultural sector. Today, the group exports its products to the CIS countries, the Middle East, the United States, and China.
