Business news from Ukraine

Ukrtransbezpeka accrues more than UAH 137 mln of overload fees in 2020

Inspectors of the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety (Ukrtransbezpeka), together with the National Police, checked almost 700,000 vehicles in 2020, having drawn up more than 14,000 acts on violation of overall and weight parameters, and accrued more than UAH 137 million of overload fees.

The press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure reported on Tuesday with reference to Minister Vladyslav Krykliy, among the regions at the end of the year, most of the fees was charged in Odesa, Kherson and Kyiv regions.

“In 2020, we declared a battle to overloaded trucks, introduced enhanced weight control and continue work on reforming and digitizing Ukrtransbezpeka to eliminate the human factor. More than 40 WiM systems have been installed. And this year at least 100 WiM will work,” the press service said, citing Krykliy as saying.

According to him, full automation and digitalization of all processes to eliminate the human factor remains the main goal of the ministry in reforming Ukrtransbezpeka. But for the full-fledged launch of the automatic weight control system in Ukraine, the soonest adoption of bills No. 3742 and No. 3743 by MPs is necessary.

“Now the Verkhovna Rada is considering at the second reading bill No. 3743, which provides for the refusal of fare and transfer of responsibility for violation of the overall and weight standards in the plane of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. This will simplify the collection procedure and increase the percentage of paid fines,” Head of Ukrtransbezpeka Yehor Prokopchuk said.

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UKRAINE PLANS TO CREATE INSTITUTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INSPECTORS

The Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine plans before august 20, 2018 to work on the issue of the creation of the institution of public intellectual property inspectors.
The respective decision was made at the first meeting of the Intellectual Property Council on June 14, according to materials published on the ministry’s website.
According to the report presented by Deputy Minister Mykhailo Tytarchuk, funding the institution is provided at the expense of penalties for copyright infringements.
According to the report, public inspectors have the right to conduct scheduled and unscheduled inspections to identify violations in the field of intellectual property. In addition, the law imposes on them the function of bringing infringers to administrative responsibility – through registration of administrative protocols and sending them to court. In case of revealing signs of criminal offenses, the public inspector sends relevant materials to law enforcement agencies.
However, today there is no such institution in Ukraine, which forces intellectual property entities to apply to court in case of violations, the ministry said.
The ministry pointed out the need for this step in the context of the “Special Report 301” issued by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The Cabinet of Ministers established the Intellectual Property Council as a consultative and advisory body on February 7, 2018.

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