In accordance with the Law “On Licensing Types of Economic Activities”, licensing activities in the telecommunications sector should cease to have effect from January 1, 2018. However, the NCCIR continued to issue licenses for this activity, referring to the fact that the Law “On Telecommunications” was not harmonized with the Law “On Licensing Types of Economic Activities”.
Just in 2018, companies paid about 13.5 million hryvnias for activities, which are not subject to licensing according to the Law. In addition, it included a large amount of time spent by entrepreneurs to register documents along with bureaucratic procedures.
Today, the CMU adopted a draft resolution “On Amendments to the List of Licensing Bodies and Recognizing Some Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as Invalid” developed by the MEDT and the BRDO Office to resolve this issue.
The document brings the Government’s acts on licensing in the telecommunications sector into line with the Law “On Licensing Types of Economic Activities” and provides for:
- excluding the NCCIR as a licensing body in telecommunications from the list of licensing bodies (the CMU Resolution No.609 of 05/09/2015);
- recognizing the CMU Resolution No.773 of 16/06/04 “On the Amount and the Procedure of Payments to Issue, Reissue, Issue License Duplicates and Copies for Telecommunications Activities and Their Extension” as invalid.
The approval of the Resolution will also ensure fulfillment of Ukraine’s obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU, in particular, the implementation of provisions of the Directive No.2002/20/EU of 07/03/2002 on the authorization of electronic communications networks regarding the cancellation of licensing the activities in the telecommunications sector.
We are grateful to all who have been involved in the process for their support of this important initiative.