The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted in general the bill amending the Budget Code of Ukraine regarding the use of funds from accounts for the support of Ukraine.
In particular, the document proposes:
- distribution and spending of such funds according to clear budget rules within the budget programs of the special fund of the state budget;
- monthly reporting on the receipt and use of funds for each of the accounts opened at the National Bank and supervision of their use in accordance with budget legislation;
- publication on the official websites of the main fund managers of the amounts of voluntary contributions received, the list of purchased goods and services.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation will be the first government body to test the Government BI (GBI) analytical system. After beta testing, the project is planned to be scaled to other central executive authorities. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development Oleksandr Borniakov.
‘Large arrays of data, dynamism of events and not always prompt exchange of information between state bodies — all this affects the quality of management decisions. We believe that this process can be optimized with analytical tools. The Government BI will enable state bodies to quickly collect masses of information and take it into account when making decisions. GBI will not replace people, but will help them process data and through the prism of analytics will tell what to do in a particular situation and how a certain decision will affect state development and people's well-being,’ he said.
The system will use artificial intelligence tools. At the final stages of project implementation, the development of BigData institutes is planned, which will develop an open data system when all information from state bodies will be integrated among themselves.
The State Statistics Service is involved in the development and implementation of the project.
The President of Ukraine has signed Law of Ukraine No. 2981-ХХ ‘On Amending the Law of Ukraine ‘On Mandatory State Pension Insurance’ Regarding the Assignment of Pensions to People Living in the Temporarily Occupied Territory or in the Territory Where Hostilities Are Conducted’, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada March 20, 2023.
The document is aimed at ensuring that citizens exercise their right to pension under martial law.
Citizens who have reached the retirement age, or have become disabled, or have lost their provider and live in the temporarily occupied territory or in the territory where hostilities are taking place, faced the impossibility of receiving a pension. Indeed, they cannot directly apply to the bodies of the Pension Fund of Ukraine or submit an application and supporting documents through the PFU electronic services web portal due to the lack of Internet and Ukrainian mobile communications in the occupied territories.
The adopted law is designed to settle this problem, in particular by providing that during the period of martial law and within three months after its termination or cancellation, a pension is granted regardless of the date of application.
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has adopted the Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures’ No. 2971-IX of March 20, 2023 with the aim of implementing the reform of the bankruptcy system, without which it is impossible to achieve more significant results in improving the investment attractiveness of the domestic market and ensuring the ease of management business in Ukraine, as well as in order to ensure legal certainty and effective application of bankruptcy legislation.
From now on, bankruptcy claims will be able to be considered in a simplified legal proceeding without summoning the parties. The law also simplifies the work of the arbitration manager. It provides for the creation of an automated information system ‘Bankruptcy and Insolvency’, which will combine the necessary registers and databases and which will include the Electronic Office of the Arbitration Administrator.
The President of Ukraine has signed the Law of Ukraine ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Combating Fraud in Employment Abroad’ No. 2982-IX of March 20, 2023.
The law cancels the licensing of business entities that provide employment mediation services abroad. At the same time, it is proposed to introduce the declarative principle of conducting such activities, according to which business entities providing mediation services in employment abroad are included in the list of business entities based on the declaration submitted by them. A similar practice exists, in particular, in neighboring Poland.
The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine is entrusted with the duty of maintaining a list of business entities that provide employment mediation services abroad, which must be open to all. Control over the activities of such business entities is entrusted to the State Labor Service of Ukraine.
The document also provides for the introduction of administrative responsibility for the implementation by the business entity of the activity of providing mediation services in employment abroad without inclusion in the above list, as well as for collecting from citizens any fees, commissions, rewards, other types of payment for mediation services in employment in Ukraine or abroad. Intermediaries can receive remuneration for their work only from employers who order their services.
The business entity is obliged to provide the citizen with the following data before departure for employment abroad:
- draft employment agreement (contract), certified by a foreign employer;
- information in written form about the rights and guarantees provided to employee under the employment agreement (contract), provided for by the legislation of Ukraine and the legislation of the state of the employer’s location;
- contact details of consular institutions of Ukraine in the host country.
Receipt of information and draft employment agreement (contract) is confirmed by a citizen’s written (electronic digital) signature. The specified documents are kept by the business entity that provides mediation services in employment abroad for five years.
Among other things, an intermediary company in employment abroad will have to keep records of citizens who are employed abroad through its mediation and submit to the Ministry of Economy a report on the implementation of activities for the provision of mediation services in employment abroad.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has made changes to the appendix to CMU Resolution No. 153 of February 24, 2022 ‘On Certain Issues Regarding Ensuring Imports’. This was done in order to enable publishers to make currency settlements for the purchase of rights to publish works by foreign authors in Ukraine and to pay royalties to authors of works sold in Ukraine.
Thus, the document expanded the list of services, works, intellectual property rights, other non-property rights intended for sale (payment transfer), for the import operations of which the National Bank is recommended to ensure transfers.
The list was supplemented with the item ‘Calculations under license agreements for services for the provision of intellectual property rights for the use of literary works, in particular royalties’.
The State Tax Service of Ukraine, in letter No. 525/ ЗПІ/99-00-21-03-02-10 dated March 29, 2023, recognized that a consignment note is not a document that contains information to determine the object of VAT taxation.
The only basis for determining the object of VAT taxation is a business transaction for the supply of goods (services), the fact of which is confirmed by primary documents drawn up according to accounting rules. According to the results of such a transaction, the VAT payer – the supplier of goods (services) is obliged to draw up a tax return and register it in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices.
Also, the Supreme Court, in particular, in its ruling dated March 2, 2023, in case No. 804/644/16, concludes that the presence or absence of consigned notes and deficiencies in their execution are not a basis for concluding that a business transaction for the purchase or sale of goods and materials is unmerchandisable values, if other data indicate the movement of assets or changes in the taxpayer’s liabilities.
In addition, the consignment note is proof of the fact of transportation (movement) of the goods, therefore, the transportation itself is mandatory during the taxation of transactions under contracts. Instead, the fact of the transfer of the goods and, accordingly, the acquisition of the right to ownership of it, must be confirmed by the invoice.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported the exemption from VAT and customs duties on the import of goods for security and defense, defined in bills No. 9061 and No. 9062.
The idea of the documents is to exempt from VAT taxation transactions involving the importation into the customs territory of Ukraine of goods belonging to the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, as well as other entities in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, military formations, intelligence agencies, and special-purpose agencies with law enforcement functions entrusted with state defense functions, placed under the customs regime of processing outside the customs territory of Ukraine, and/or the products of their processing, which are returned to the customs territory of Ukraine under the customs regime of import after repair and/or maintenance.
It is also proposed to exempt from VAT taxation operations for the supply of services related to military software, the international transfer of which is subject to state control.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has developed a new form of Calculation of part of net profit (income), dividends on the state share. The draft order of the Ministry of Finance ‘On Approval of Changes to the Form of Calculation of a Part of Net Profit (Income), Dividends for the State Share’ was published on the website of the State Tax Service of Ukraine.
The document was prepared in order to implement the following provisions:
- Law of Ukraine No. 1630-IX of July 13, 2021 “On the Peculiarities of Reforming Enterprises of State-Owned Defense-Industrial Complex’;
- Law of Ukraine No. 2761-IX of November 16, 2022 ‘On Amendments to Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Management of State-Owned Entities’;
- Law of Ukraine No. 2792-IX of December 1, 2022 ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improving the Efficiency of State Sector Economic Entities’;
- CMU Resolution No. 718 of July 14, 2021 ‘On Amendments to item 1 of the Procedure for Deducting a Part of Net Profit (Income) to the State Budget by State Unitary Enterprises and Their Associations.
The main purpose of preparing the draft order is to approve changes to the form of Calculation of the part of net profit (income), dividends on the state share, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance No. 4 of January 12, 2021, with the aim of bringing it into line with current legislation.
The National Bank of Ukraine by Resolution No. 47 of April 4, 2023 ‘On the Approval of the Regulation on Inspections of Non-Bank Payment Service Providers and Limited Payment Service Providers' approved the procedure for conducting inspections of non-bank payment service providers and limited payment service providers.
In particular, the following issue are settled:
- purpose of inspections, which will be carried out by persons authorized by the National Bank – members of the inspection team headed by the head of the inspection team;
- composition of the inspection group, rights and obligations of persons authorized to carry out the inspection;
- rights and obligations of the person authorized to represent the interests of the object of inspection and the employees of the object of inspection;
- reasons for organizing unscheduled inspections;
- procedures for organizing, conducting and recording the results of scheduled and unscheduled inspections;
- procedures in case of obstruction of inspection.
In order to optimize the inspection procedures of non-bank providers of payment services, which also have licenses to provide other, except payment, financial services, and to reduce the burden on the market of financial payment services, it is possible to conduct a simultaneous inspection in addition to the inspection on the provision of payment services, which will cover issues provision of other financial services.
The conduct of such a simultaneous inspection will be carried out taking into account the procedures established by the Regulation on the procedure for organizing, conducting and registering the results of inspections of participants in non-banking financial services markets, approved by Resolution of the NBU Board No. 22 of February 26, 2021.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted as a basis the project of the Law "On Amendments to Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Vocational (Vocational and Technical) Education’ regarding Certain Aspects of Licensing Procedure’ (reg. No. 8365 of January 16, 2023).
The need to adopt amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Vocational (Vocational and Technical) Education’ consisted in harmonizing the licensing procedure for vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions with the approaches used in the fields of vocational pre-higher and higher education.
The adopted Law eliminates unnecessary bureaucratic barriers in regulating the activities of vocational (vocational and technical) education institutions, in particular, the obligation for them to undergo a full licensing procedure during the reissuance of licenses, which is caused by reorganization, change of ownership, name or legal address, and change of name profession (professional job title) or class of qualification grouping according to the National Classifier of Ukraine ‘Profession Classifier’, according to which training of vocational (vocational-technical) education and/or vocational (vocational-technical) training is carried out.
That is, the law is aimed at eliminating inconsistencies between the components of education and debureaucratizing the licensing procedure in the field of vocational (vocational and technical) education.
