Investment nannies are moving into the Cabinet of Ministers building. Cabinet Minister Dmytro Dubilet has decided to oust a subsidized hair salon from the Cabinet of Ministers building and relocate the country’s Investment Promotion Office, known as UkraineInvest, into the premises. UkraineInvest is responsible for bringing investors to Ukraine and helping them run businesses here. This body has also been referred to as an “investment nanny” after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky give them this nickname at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22. Zelensky promised that each investor putting over $100 million into Ukraine’s economy would have a personal “investment nanny” able to protect it and resolve its problems.
The Supreme Court has delayed a hearing on a precedent-setting PrivatBank-related case. On Jan. 31, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court started a substantive trial on a cassation appeal to overturn a lower court decision ruling that state-owned PrivatBank must pay back deposits to the families of Ihor and Hryhoriy Surkis, the powerful businessmen and partners of the bank’s scandalous former co-owner, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Now the Ukrainian government and PrivatBank — which was nationalized in 2016 — are appealing. Should the Supreme Court eventually side with the Surkises, it would set a precedent that would allow other alleged PrivatBank insiders to potentially reclaim their deposits in court. The hearing has been delayed indefinitely. Read more about this critical case.
Fuel gets cheaper in Ukraine as illegal petrol stations close. At least that’s what Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk said over the Telegram messenger, attributing this achievement to himself. “Within a month, the price for diesel and gasoline fell by Hr 2 (per 1 litre of fuel) on average,” Honcharuk said. The prime minister sees two benefits for Ukrainians in fighting illegal fuel sales: making Ukrainians spend $20.4 million less on fuel monthly and increasing official sales by 6%, which will help Ukraine collect more taxes. As of October 2019, there were 842 illegal petrol stations in Ukraine, but by January 2020, their number fell by almost 50% to 445 stations, Ekonomichna Pravda reports.
Ukrtransgaz’s bank accounts have been arrested and roughly $2 million was seized. The money was confiscated because of a court case Ukrtransgaz lost back in 2007, when the company was charged with mismanagement: it failed to supply gas it owed to a utility company. The 13-year delay between the court decision and the confiscation of the money occurred because the utility company “abstained from recovering the debt,” Ukrtransgaz states on its website. However, the Ukrainian gas firm, which is a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz, claims it was stripped of the money illegally. It has appealed to the Justice Ministry.
Ukraine’s Deposit Guarantee Fund liquidates a bank, two more coming. The fund has completed the liquidation of Green Bank, having repaid Hr 3.7 million ($ 149,000) to this bank’s depositors. The guarantee fund has also been repaying funds to depositors of Bank Petrocommerce Ukraine and CityCommerce Bank. Green Bank, Bank Petrocommerce Ukraine and CityCommerce Bank were all recognised as insolvent in 2014–2016, when the National Bank of Ukraine began cleaning up the Ukrainian banking system. The guarantee fund has liquidated 36 banks, and another 59 are in the process of liquidation.
Ukraine’s Customs Service rolls out online platform to customs clear used cars. The online portal is for customs clearing used cars imported from abroad, Liga.net reports. Ukrainian residents who own imported cars can now customs clear them with five easy steps on the customs service website, according to AIN.ua. The Customs Service officers will process the applications within one day. If the customs authorities do not have enough information, the applicants will have to re-apply.
