The Ukrainian government will propose to the Verkhovna Rada that a EUR 100 million 30-year loan provided by Poland at 0.15% per annum is unlocked. The respective bill was approved at the government meeting on Wednesday. “The loan agreement between the governments of Ukraine and the Republic of Poland entered into force in April 2016. However, due to difficulties with the performance of contracts by Polish enterprises, where Ukravtodor, road services in Lviv and Volyn regions, the State Fiscal Service (the assignee is the State Customs Service) act as customers, in particular with the import and purchase of necessary goods on the territory of Ukraine, the loan takedown amounted to only EUR 5.8 million,” the Finance Ministry said on its website.
The proposed changes clarify the list of operations, goods exempted from taxation, and the settlement of customs payments in Ukraine as part of the implementation of the relevant agreement between the governments of the two countries.
“Under the agreement, Ukravtodor will receive EUR 68 million (for the development of road infrastructure on the approaches to six checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish state border), the State Customs Service will get EUR 25 million (for the construction of checkpoints Shehyni, Krakovets, Rava-Ruska), the administration of the State Border Guard Service will receive EUR 7 million (for the reconstruction of seven departments of the border guard service),” the Finance Ministry said.
The Cabinet of Ministers proposes to the Verkhovna Rada to adopt the bill “On Amending the Customs Tariff of Ukraine regarding the temporary application of import duty rates on certain types of grain crops.”
Relevant bill No. 3310 was registered in parliament on April 7, 2020.
The text of the bill is not yet available on the Rada’s website. However, an informed source on the market, explained in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine that it was about canceling duties on the import of vegetables and cereals before July 1.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved the candidates for ministers of the new Ukrainian government proposed by newly appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal. Some 277 MPs voted in favor of the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers.
The new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is as follows:
Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Transformation Minister of Ukraine – Mykhailo Fedorov;
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine – Vadym Prystaiko;
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine – Oleksiy Reznikov;
Social Policy Minister of Ukraine – Maryna Lazebna;
Interior Minister of Ukraine – Arsen Avakov;
Youth and Sports Minister of Ukraine – Vadym Gutzeit;
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine – Vladyslav Krykliy;
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Bessarab;
Justice Minister of Ukraine – Denys Maliuska;
Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine – Oleh Nemchinov;
Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine – Oleksiy Chernyshov;
Health Minister of Ukraine – Illia Yemets;
Finance Minister of Ukraine – Ihor Umansky.
In the previous government of Oleksiy Honcharuk, which resigned on Wednesday, Fedorov was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation, Avakov was Minister of Internal Affairs, Krykliy was Minister of Infrastructure, and Maliuska was Minister of Justice.
Culture Minister Volodymyr Borodiansky will be replaced, for now, by one of his deputies as Acting Culture Minister, a Servant of the People parliamentarian, Yevhenia Kravchuk, said on Facebook.
“The office of Minister of Education is still vacant, there will be Acting Minister of Education,” she said.
The previous Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, Dmytro Dubilet, will “remain in the team,” Kravchuk said.
Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Dmytro Dubilet has said government intends to publish monthly salaries of top officials.
“We will officially publish every month all the income that our top officials receive. This information is not a secret. This will be another step so that we become more transparent and honest with the community,” Dubilet said at a briefing on the results of a government meeting on Thursday in Kyiv.
According to him, this information will be published on the government website. It will include the salaries of ministers and their deputies.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has amended the Action Plan on Implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, the press service of the Ukrainian government reported. “The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution amending the Action Plan on Implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. The updated plan takes into account the deepening of the Ukraine-EU bilateral relations and a series of decisions adopted by the bilateral bodies of the Association Agreement in recent years,” reads the statement.
The amended document actualizes, aligns and streamlines the objectives with the dynamically evolving EU legislation. The updated tasks are related to customs and financial policy; taxation, entrepreneurship, financial services and competition; justice, social and humanitarian issues; transport; energy economy and energy efficiency; digital sphere, science, technology and innovation; nature management and others.
It is expected that the government’s decision will accelerate Ukraine’s advancement towards the EU and make this process more transparent.
A bill which legalizes gambling in Ukraine was approved by the national government on September 29, according to a statement posted on the government’s website.
According to the bill, “gambling will be allowed exclusively on hotel premises through use of gambling equipment and software that comply with international standards.”
Seeking “de-criminalization of the economy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked the government and the parliamentary majority with elaborating and adopting before December 1, 2019, laws legitimizing the gambling industry and amber production.
