13 May 2020, 21:00
The Verkhovna Rada has passed today the following draft bills/resolutions to presently emerge as full-blown pieces of legislation:
This document was executed in connection with the ongoing armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, its assistance and financing of terrorist activities in Ukraine, which have led to the violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity, rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, temporary occupation of part of its sovereign territory, numerous human casualties, actual and potential threats to national interests, security and sovereignty.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved the resolution and will submit the document for consideration by the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. The parliament’s recommendation to the council is to extend the run of validity of the sanctions and other restrictive measures.
The law is to amend a variety of Ukrainian laws and codes with the aim to update and improve legal relations in many areas of activity that suffer sudden changes sparked off by the COVID-19 spread.
The bill aims to extend the scope of anti-graft legislation over persons who are part of review boards of state-owned banks, state enterprises or profit-making organizations; companies/entities (except for stock corporations) with a statutory fund where state holds a golden share (50%+); office-holders of stock corporations with a statutory fund where state holds a golden share (50%+, directly or indirectly). Another purpose of the bill is to take advisers, aides, authorized persons, Ukrainian president’s press secretary, who act pro bono, out from the operation of anti-graft legislation.
In addition, amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On access to public information" purpose to give free access to information on structure, principles of formation, amounts of remuneration of head, members of supervisory board of a legal entity under public law, state enterprises, state companies and so forth.
The draft law aims to create an effective quarantine-long mechanism designed to avoid problems that might arise during the implementation of provisions of the Bankruptcy Code of Ukraine.
The bill secures free state registration procedures for the above categories of citizens.
The bill aims to shield entities against fines and penalties on loans during the quarantine time plus one month thereafter through making appropriate changes to Ukraine’s economic code.
The bill aims to bring Ukranian applicable law into line with the Law of Ukraine No.2617-VІІІ “On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding a simplified pre-trial investigation of certain categories of criminal offences”, that comes into force on July 1, 2020.
To attain the goal, the bill is meant to make appropriate changes to an array of Ukraine’s codes and 125 acts of law.
The law also strengthens criminal and administrative liability for damage to, destruction of components of telecommunications networks.
To this end, the law amended Article 360 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and Article 147 of the Administrative Offenses Code of Ukraine.
The bill aims to stiffen responsibility for such misconducts, with emphasis against public officers - wrongdoers.
To this end, Article 188-19 of the Administrative Offences Code of Ukraine will be correspondingly amended to now represent pecuniary penalty/fine varying from 10-50 to 200-500 tax-exempt minimum incomes (temi) for infracting the set response times or failure to provide, or providing false, incomplete or inaccurate information against an MP’s appeal; or from 100-400 to 400-800 tax-exempt minimum incomes (temi) for infracting the set response times or failure to provide, or providing false, incomplete or inaccurate information against an MP’s inquiry, and so forth.
Even harsher punishment is established for the aforementioned violations committed by public officers against MPs, local deputies, VRU committees, VRU temporary committees of inquiry or special temporary committees of inquiry (Article 351 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The bill aims to address staff shortage in judicial manpower of certain courts and a likely destabilization in dispensing justice through entitling the High Council of Justice to extend the secondment term of a judge to another same-level court to not beyond one year (Article 55).
The changes also prescribe early secondees, as well as completers (i.e. judges whose secondment term elapsed), to get back to work to that very same court which they had been posted from.
By making changes to the above codes the bill aims to refine the legal norms concerning the course of procedural terms for the quarantine period.
The draft law purposes to optimize the network of administrative services centres through a variety of instruments and to streamline access to electronic administrative services by means of complete remodelling the Unified state portal of administrative services along with its legal groundwork.
By this document, the parliament disaffirms some of the restrictions previously introduced to curb the COVID19 spread. The paper relaunches the work of parliament in a routine manner, in accordance with the work-plan calendar, starting from May 18, 2020. This resolution becomes effective on May 17, 2020.
The bill eliminates discriminatory norms from the current Law of Ukraine "On the collection and accounting of a single contribution to the compulsory state social insurance" and regulates payment of the contribution by persons/individuals engaged in independent professional activity.
The bill aims to give further effect to tax benefits and administrative procedures facilitations until the Cabinet’s quarantine restrictions end. The bill purposes the following major incentives:
- further freeze on money penalties for tax infringements perpetrated during the “eclipse run” (i.e. the period starting from March 1, 2020 till the last calendar day of the quarantine-end month);
- further freeze on fines during the “eclipse run”;
- further break in payment of a single social security tax/contribution for solopreneurs and individuals engaged in independent professional activity until 31 May 2020;
- further freeze on documental and factual check-ups until the last calendar day of the quarantine-end month;
- lower requirements to the minimum size of a bank’s authorized capital to now make UAH 200 mn against UAH 500 mn earlier on;
- application of the law of Ukraine on simpler procedures for reorganization and capitalization of banks has been extended until 2024;
- other changes aimed to regulate administrative
procedures in force during the run of the restrictive measures and for some
time afterwards.
The law aims:
- to improve the quality and efficiency of the National Bank of Ukraine’s performance in the field of banking regulation and supervision;
- to provide just and favourable conditions for the effective implementation of statutory powers of the National Bank of Ukraine, the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine when making their decisions on withdrawal of banks from the market;
- to streamline legal procedures for appealing by implementing international standards of judicial scrutiny for such categories of cases.
The law is to alter an array of codes and pieces of legislation of Ukraine correspondingly. These changes will expand the NBU's powers to supervise Ukraine’s banking institutions. Amendments have also been made to the appeal procedure against decisions made by the National Bank of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance.
The law shall enter into force on the day following its promulgation.