Business Update: April 27 – Parliament to consider at least 300 banking law amendments


The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, advanced key banking and land market legislation to qualify for additional International Monetary Fund loans.

Ukraine’s parliament may consider a banking law that’s necessary for a new IMF program within the next week or two, the banking committee chairman in the Rada has said. 

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine may consider bill No. 2571-d on the “improvement of the mechanisms for regulating banking activities,” which is considered necessary for reaching a new credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within one or two weeks.  The bill is important because it prohibits the return of some state-owned banks to controversial former owners, among other reasons. 

But dozens of amendments to the bill will need to be considered by Ukrainian lawmakers. The parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy has recommended that parliament to take into account 300 of the 16,500 amendments on the books, Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the committee, said according to Ukrainian language media.

The government is ready to ensure that state-owned companies pay 50% of profits to the state budget, a prominent lawmaker has revealed. But major enterprises like state-owned PrivatBank and Naftogaz would be required to pay 75% and 95% respectively, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko has said.

The cabinet of Ukraine has approved this new rule for sending most of the profits from state-owned enterprises (SOE) to the national budget, setting it at 50%, with exceptions for PrivatBank (75%) and NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy (95%). Such state-owned companies are already Ukraine’s biggest and most reliable taxpayers, sending a large amount of their profits back to the country in the form of a dividend. 

Honcharenko said: “The baseline rule is 50%, while exceptions are for Ukrenergo and Ukrhydroenergo – 30%, PrivatBank – 75% and Naftogaz – 95%.” 

The new finance minister Serhiy Marchenko sees grounds for investigating alleged actions of ex-heads of customs, tax services. Marchenko said he sees grounds for law enforcement investigations to look into the activities of those dismissed on Friday, April 24 – the head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov and head of the State Tax Service Serhiy Verlanov. He said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Marchenko said: “There are sufficient reasons for the investigation of their activities by law enforcement agencies,” citing alleged complaints from businesses regarding delays on automatic VAT refunds, and alleged unjustified blocking of tax invoices. “With this approach, people simply lose their business. And this is instead of helping it survive in such a difficult period,” the minister said.

Sales of new cars in Ukraine fell by 63% through April. Liga.net reported this decline, citing information from the Autoconsulting analytical group and its general director Oleg Omelnitsky. “The depth of the pit, where the Ukrainian car market failed because of quarantine, became clear. The market for new cars rolled back to the beginning of 2015,” Omelnitsky said. According to him, only 46,500 units were sold per year.