Within the framework of his visit to one of the industrial giants of Ukraine, Viktor Halasiuk met with the leadership of the enterprise, talked to its employees and studied the work of the rolling mill and pig iron workshop.
Having called the mining and metals sector of Ukraine a fundamental of the Ukrainian industry, the Chairperson of the Committee said that this sector needs immediate support and urgent development. He said that the sector provides over 25% of the industrial output and one fourth of the state's exportation volume. "Today, we have two major tasks. Firstly, we have to save the Ukrainian metallurgy and mining-metals sector and prevent elimination of jobs of the Ukrainian metallurgists, prevent the outflow of specialists abroad and avoid any tax pressure on the sector. Secondly, we have to develop the sector," Halasiuk said.
The anti-crisis plan for the protection of the sector offered by the Chairperson of the Committee envisions three elements, in particular, the adoption of the draft law No. 3868 in second reading and in principle. The document envisions temporary (up to 3 years) increase of the duty for the exportation of scrap metal with simultaneous cancellation of manual assignment of quotas for the said period.
The second element is the introduction of a moratorium on increase of railway tariffs for freight transportation. "Today instead of raising the Ukrzaliznytsia's tariffs, we have to find internal reserves, inter alia to use the decrease in prices for metal products, diesel fuel, etc. We have to finds the reserves and implement the modernization program without raising any the tariffs," the Chairperson of the Committee said. He added that the third element should be the freezing of indexation of the land tax. "The land tax will grow 1.7 times in compliance with the results of the research conducted last and this year. This is just a killing term for the Ukrainian metallurgy and Ukrainian industry on the whole," Halasiuk said.