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trillion and UAH1.183 trillion, respectively.
6.1.2 Budget dynamics - specific issues...
Domestic and foreign investors will get import tax breaks under a measure adopted by Ukraine’s Parliament on March 3. Import transactions by major investors would be exempt from value-added taxes until Jan. 1, 2035, under the legislation approved Tuesday. The list and volumes of exempt products will be approved by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers. The measure now heads to the president’s desk for his signature and becomes effective upon publication in the official gazette.
6.1.3 Budget dynamics - funding
The government is working on implementing 40 joint projects with international financial organizations, worth a total of EUR 5.66bn and $3.09bn, reports the Ministry of Finance. These organizations include the International the Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation (NEFCO), the Reconstruction Credit Institution (KfW) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
6.1.4 Budget dynamics - privatization
The first large scale privatizations of public enterprises are to take place this summer, Prime Minister Shmygal announced on Telegram. After meeting with Dmytro Sennychenko, the Head of the State Property Fund, Shmygal wrote that top candidates for auction are: Kyiv’s President Hotel, Kyiv’s First Bolshevik Machine-Building Plant, and the United Mining and Chemical Company.
Bidding in an online auction of a Ukrspirt distillery drove the price up almost five times, to $3.6mn, reported the State Property Fund. Thursday’s sale of the Vyshiakivka, Poltava is part of a plan to sell all 41 unites of Ukrspirt. In the second half of this year, major privatization will commence, notably the sales of: Kyiv’s President Hotel, the Bolshevik enterprise, the Odesa Port Plant, and the United Mining and Chemical Company.
By the end of this decade, Ukraine’s goal is to sell all state companies not protected from privatization and to transfer to concession 90% of companies enterprise protected from privatization. These goals are stated in the National Economic Strategy of Ukraine until 2030, approved last week by the Cabinet of Ministers. The plans include corporatizing all state-owned companies, introducing supervisory boards, ensuring the financial self-sufficiency, increasing the average return on equity of state-owned enterprises to 10%, and carrying out IPOs in international financial markets of at least two state companies.
The Verkhovna Rada has passed at the final reading government's bill No. 4543 on unlocking the large-scale privatization process on March 30. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that 257 MPs backed the bill with the required 226 votes. As reported, large-scale privatization was
35 UKRAINE Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com