From now on, foreign private entrepreneurs do not need a residence permit to register, and a location address can be confirmed by other documents – for example, by a contract for the lease of real estate located in Ukraine. This significantly simplifies the cooperation of Ukrainian companies with foreign citizens as PEs. Thanks to the joint work of representatives of the committee on finance & law of the IT Ukraine Association, BRDO experts and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, an explanation regarding the definition of “Place of residence/location of a private entrepreneur” was issued.
One of the main factors contributing to the development of the IT industry and IT business in Ukraine is the possibility of using the simplified taxation system, the so-called “third group”, which is currently serving as an analogue of incentive-based systems in other countries. Another factor that has a positive impact both on the IT industry and other sectors as well is the conditions for the free movement of specialists between countries and a clear mechanism to establish legal business activities for foreigners in Ukraine. But before then, there were restrictions, which significantly complicated the cooperation of Ukrainian companies with foreigners as private entrepreneurs, in our country.
The following two conditions are required to enable an enterprise to enter into a contract with a foreigner as a PE (for example, with a software developer from another country): the foreigner should legally stay in Ukraine and be registered as a PE in Ukraine.
It seems there are no hassles. But both points create significant restrictions.
First, legal grounds for staying in Ukraine imply among other things having a temporary residence permit, which can not be obtained if foreigners would like to work in Ukrainian enterprises without official employment contracts or work as PEs without a long-term residence in Ukraine.
Secondly, to register as a PE in Ukraine, a foreign citizen should submit an application for the state registration of a private entrepreneur, which contains a column “Place of residence/location of a private entrepreneur”. And this column caused difficulties – registrars interpreted this provision as a duty of foreigners to have a registered place of residence within the meaning of the Law “On Freedom of Movement and Free Choice of Residence in Ukraine”, which in turn required having a temporary residence permit. That is, foreigners were not able to be registered as PEs in Ukraine without obtaining a residence permit.
“We have revealed the fact that it was impossible for foreigners to register as entrepreneurs without a residence permit during our comprehensive analysis of the software development market. This barrier is described in detail in the Green Paper developed as a result of this analysis and available at https://regulation.gov.ua/. We are grateful to the Ministry of Justice for their work on the elimination of this barrier and look forward to fruitful cooperation on other initiatives,” the IT and Telecom Sector Head at the Better Regulation Delivery Office Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
“The possibility to freely cooperate with foreigners on a contractual basis is a long-awaited victory for the Ukrainian IT industry. This will encourage the sharing of experience in this sector and promote the development of specialists, which, as a result, will create additional conditions for the development of information technologies in our country. This opportunity will make Ukraine more open to foreign human capital and increase revenues to the state budget in the form of taxes,” the President of IT Ukraine Association, Managing Director of GlobalLogic Ukraine Ihor Byeda said.
In today’s world, it’s hard to imagine a business, except for the smallest one, which does not use accounting software to account for activities. Moreover, today ERP systems, that is, enterprise resource planning systems, which allow to automate not only the processing of performance data, but also primary business processes, grow in popularity.
For many large and medium-sized companies, the implementation of ERP solutions has long been not just a competitive advantage, but an important prerequisite to maintain their market positions. Without them, company managers and owners do not have adequate information about the state of business and can not make the most effective management decisions.
Similar problems are also urgent for the area of state control. Without having a possibility to get information on political realities and policy implementation online, civil servants and citizens do not understand what exactly the state is controlling, which benefits the public have from state inspections of business entities and which risks are minimized through the state intervention. Accordingly, the policies related to the inspection system are formed at random and based on intuition, rather than by using a well-targeted analytical approach. Citizens are deprived of the opportunity to receive relevant information allowing to assess the quality of state activities in a few clicks.
It is plain to see that there is a need to develop a fully functional ERP system for state control. In alternative reality, such a system should have been implemented by the state at least 10 years ago. However, the political will to digitalization of the inspection system appeared only in 2016. In 2017, the BRDO team created a pilot module IAS (Integrated Automated System of State Control) – a prototype of the future full-featured online system of state control measures.
Even now, the IAS has a good functionality, and in a few years, it will transform into a powerful information and analytical platform that will implement the most important principle of the functioning of the adequate ERP system – all important data is entered into the database once in a place of creation of relevant information and becomes immediately available to users.
The inspection reform is gaining momentum. Join!
On January 10, 2018, the NKREKP’s Resolution #972 of 27/07/2017 entered into force, which allows to introduce the RAB-regulation for oblenergos. The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) estimated that introducing RAB tariffs on the basis of the existing regulatory framework might lead to worsening of the business environment and additional business expenses starting from 281 million UAH in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and to 1.4 billion UAH in the Kyiv region.
RAB-tariffs/incentive-based regulation is a tariff system for distribution companies-natural monopolies, according to which company’s revenues depend on the quality of services/products it provides and its regulatory asset base. The latter includes oblenergo’s own infrastructure used for electricity distribution.
“An incentive-based approach is the best global practice that stimulates energy service companies to reduce costs and upgrade networks. But, in Ukraine, it should be implemented providing there is an effective energy regulator and a balanced approach. Otherwise, consumers will receive high tariffs without the really improved quality of oblenergo’s services. In our estimates, the burden on entrepreneurs will increase by an average of 10%, and in some regions – up to 25%,” the BRDO’s Energy Sector Head Oleksiy Orzhel said.
Subordinate acts to implement the RAB-regulation in Ukraine were adopted in 2013. However, their provisions have been significantly changed for 5 years, in particular:
Thus, the NKREKP establishes the same guaranteed level of oblenergos’ profitability of 12.5 for both old (already existing) and new (non-established yet) assets. At the same time, the value of assets of energy companies estimated by the SPF’s methodology (Decree #293 of 12/03/2013) significantly exceeds the amount of money actually invested in companies.
For example, an owner of the PJSC “Kirovohradoblenergo” paid $16 million to the state for 51% of shares during its privatization. According to results of asset revaluation, their value increased to $271 million (i.e. by 8.5 times). Now, according to the NKREKP’s decisions, a company owner will receive 12.5% of the revalued amount each year. That is, for the first year of RAB-regulation, the Kirovohradoblenergo owner will receive 2 times more money than he paid for the company.
The proper implementation of RAB-regulation in Ukraine requires:
OR
If the rate of return is charged on assets, the value of which is estimated in accordance with the current methodology (SPF’s Decree #293 of 12/03/2013), it should be set at the level of 1-5%.
More information on the retail electricity market in Ukraine is available in the Green Paper developed by BRDO experts here.
For information: In the United Kingdom, tariffs for services of natural monopolies increased by 28% with inflation of 3% in 2016-2017. But in return, the British do not have problems with power shortages – their average annual duration is 50 minutes, while in Ukraine, it is 690 minutes. In Australia, there is another problem – distribution companies there have increased the value of their assets by 5 times in a few years and now they are one of the biggest in the world.
State control of business should be based on a risk-based approach. There have been the relevant legal provisions at the level of slogans for more than ten years. However, to what extent is the actual state control mechanism really based on risks?
The answer to this question can be found in paragraph 11 of the CMU Resolution No.752, which stipulates that up to 10% of business entities can be classified as high-risk ones and up to 30% – as medium-risk businesses in relevant state control areas.
What does it practically mean? For example, there are 1,000 business entities working in a certain area of state control. If it happens that 300 business entities are classified as high-risk ones based on statutory risk assessment criteria, then still only 100 of them will be legally classified as high-risk businesses and inspected at appropriate intervals (no more than once every two years). Another business entities will be classified as medium-risk ones, which implies carrying out planned state control measures no more than once every 3 years.
The case stated above clearly demonstrates the “split mind” of domestic law makers, who, on the one hand, declare the state’s responsibility to focus on the risk associated with activities of a particular business entity, and, on the other hand, force state control bodies to ignore this risk and pretend that, in fact, it is lower.
It is easy to see that in the example mentioned above, classifying an entrepreneur as a high-risk or medium-risk business will depend only on the judgement of a particular state official. Does this case create corruption opportunities? Certainly, it does. Should we change this situation? The answer is definitely “Yes”. How can we solve the problem described? This will be discussed in our next articles. Stay in touch!
In 2016, there were 135 thousand cases of denied registration of land plots. In order to reduce this rate, it was decided to introduce more transparent, clear and convenient conditions for preparation and examination of documents. The State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre together with the BRDO Office developed a draft CMU Resolution “On Amendments to the Procedure for Maintaining the State Land Cadastre” to improve the mechanism of providing administrative services, namely:
Please, send your comments and suggestions to the resolution within a month. Congratulations to the StateGeoCadastre on simplifying land procedures! It took a lot of time to develop the draft resolution, but there is still a lot of work ahead.
Source: 24.ua
In Ukraine, there is a rule of mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings. Technically, the portion of currency earnings subject to mandatory sale has decreased from 75% to 50% over the past two years. However, as for individual entrepreneurs who work under international business contracts and receive salaries for their work in foreign currency from abroad, the mandatory sale of foreign currency earnings has increased up to 100% for them.
Why? It is so, because starting from September 2016, individual entrepreneurs can not withdraw any dollar or euro they earned under international business contracts from their accounts in Ukraine. First of all – because there is no possibility to transfer the IE’s foreign currency, which is not subject to mandatory sale, to your personal currency card and then, withdraw money from this account, for example, in another country. In September 2016, the National Bank of Ukraine issued this “restriction” in the format of clarification, according to which it is impossible to transfer money from the IE’s account to your personal account. That is, in fact, starting from September 2016, there is a rule of mandatory sale of 100% foreign currency earnings for IEs. Although, the NBU officially declares the foreign currency liberalization and reducing the mandatory sale of foreign exchange earnings.
According to IT and Telecom experts from the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), in the IT industry, this restriction is applied to 20-30 thousand software developers who are IEs and work under international business contracts.
Since the average monthly income of IT specialists is about $1,800, according to the BRDO, that the export of IT specialists who are IEs will range from $360-540 million in 10 months. This completely corresponds with the NBU’s data: the volume of computer services exports for transactions in the amount of less than $20,000 over 10 months of 2017 amounted to $674.5 million, and for transactions in the amount of more than $20,000 – $132.7 million.
IEs lose about 30 kopecks with the mandatory conversion of every dollar (the difference between currency buying and selling rates). So, this restriction costs 3,240 hryvnas per year for an average IT specialist, and for the whole sector – about 65-97 million hryvnas per year.
According to the IT and Telecom Sector Head Oleksandr Kubrakov, the obligation of exporters to sell earned money is a restriction on economic freedoms.
“No developed country has such a rule. Moreover, a number of post-Soviet countries has already cancelled this restriction. In particular, in Uzbekistan and Russia. The neighboring Belarus has lowered the sales rate to 10%,” the expert says.
The representative of the IT industry Dmytro Ovcharenko (CEO of ALCOR) said that it was very important for Ukraine to new innovative levers, by using which it would be possible to have a powerful economic boom during the war. The today’s IT industry is already more than 3 billion dollars of ready foreign currency annually and 3% of GDP.
“But how to keep skilled programmers from moving to developed countries and attract them to Ukraine from the CIS? Belarus, for example, has adopted unprecedented laws on IT development that allowed even the use of individual English law institutes! Therefore, the possibility to accept honestly earned currency proceeds on own foreign currency account from abroad will be a great help for IT guys-entrepreneurs in the context of unstable hryvna and will increase the attractiveness of Ukraine as an IT platform,” Dmytro Ovcharenko emphasized.
Viktor Halchynsky, Head of the press service of PJSC “Kredobank” said in a conversation with website “24” that the restriction to transfer the foreign currency from accounts of individual entrepreneurs to personal accounts, to put it mildly, was not very logical – because such incomes were taxed in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation and the taxation system, under which such entrepreneurs worked. In addition, according to this approach, a similar restriction should apply to transactions in hryvnas. “In such a way, today entrepreneurs are forced not only to lose due to exchange rates, but also meet additional expenses for the opportunity to use earned and already taxed funds,” the bank’s representative noted.
“Consequently, such a restriction does not encourage entrepreneurs to deal with the Ukrainian banking sector and stimulates to keep foreign exchange assets and settle payments in foreign banks due to the liberalization of the National Bank’s attitude towards accounts abroad. In our opinion, the cancellation of this restriction will allow to increase exchange inflows into the banking system, and a portion of these currency earnings will be spent in Ukraine anyway,” Viktor Halchynsky said.
How to solve the problem?
Oleksandr Kubrakov emphasized that Ukrainian lawmakers understand the unfriendliness of such a rule for the market and, according to it, this restriction may be set for a period of up to 6 months (Art.25 of the Law on the NBU). “But there is nothing more permanent than something temporary. Especially when it comes to bans,” he said and added that the mandatory sale of proceeds by exporters is not only a ban to dispose foreign currency, but also a barrier for economic development.
The BRDO Office believes that it is quite simple to allow IEs to continue disposing their unsold foreign currency, and the NBU just will need to:
1. Cancel own amendment to the NBU’s Instruction and allow transferring the foreign currency from IE’s accounts to personal accounts;
2. Publish a clarification letter on the possibility of transferring the foreign currency from IE’s accounts to personal accounts.
The BRDO hopes the NBU will include this decision in its nearest plans and implement it.
It is important for businesses to collect feedbacks on the quality of goods and services from consumers. It is an incentive to constantly improve, provide better employees’ performance and get a larger number of positive feedbacks. If some business doesn’t do this, it will simply close. Is the state interested in the “customers” opinion regarding the quality of its services? With some minor exceptions, it is not. The BRDO Office is going to change this approach as part of the inspection reform we are currently implementing.
The first step is to supplement the unified inspection act with new columns filled by entrepreneurs. Why is this important? First, the business that will be inspected should have a chance to assess the burdensomeness of each of legislative requirement, under which it is inspected. The ancient I Hear Everyone concept has to work fine! Of course, the assessment of a certain requirement as a burdensome one by business entities does not mean that this requirement will be changed or cancelled because of this. The task is to collect a huge array of data, the analysis of which will allow to identify the problem areas of the current legal regulation.
Secondly, entrepreneurs should have an opportunity to easily give a mark (from 1 to 10) to the quality of state inspector’s work according to two criteria: integrity and professional competence. For example, a low rating of an official’s performance will not lead to disciplinary measures. In many cases, an entrepreneur’s assessment will be subjective, but it gives invaluable materials for analysis.
And the last important question, for which we do not have a ready answer: how to organize the assessment of the quality of state control measures by another interested party – consumers of goods and services. Do you have any ideas how to do this? Write in comments!
Last year, the BRDO together with the SRS and the Ministry of Economic Development worked hard to implement innovative solutions in the state supervision (control) system before the end of the moratorium on business inspections. For example, a pilot IAS module, which is a significant step from the unpredictable and therefore corrupt system to a transparent and clear risk management system.
Now the moratorium on inspections is extended until the end of 2018, but this year we have a special “reasonable moratorium”. Why? There are two main points.
The first one is a leverage, which, under appropriate conditions, will allow involving those inspection bodies that can be partners, but not a problem for businesses, in a smart and consistent way. This leverage is the fact that a list of bodies, which are not subject to the moratorium, is determined by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and not by the Verkhovna Rada. The CMU’s decision is not only more flexible by default, but also better informed, since most of supervisory bodies are coordinated by the relevant ministries.
The second one is related to additional grounds for unplanned inspection during the moratorium in 2018. In particular, when there is a need to control whether an entrepreneur eliminated violations identified during the preliminary inspection. And more importantly – if there is an event that has a significant negative impact on the rights, interests, life and health of people, the environment and the state security. This new ground will allow supervisory bodies to respond effectively to threats to main social values in real time, and not just to make a helpless gesture while waiting for complaints or court decisions.
Meanwhile, we are still working hard on the national risk management system.
Source: ru.golos.ua.
In 2018, Ukrainian enterprises will find out more about a plan for business inspections at ias.brdo.com.ua. The BRDO Head and representative of the advisory group to the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksiy Honcharuk told about that to the GolosUA correspondent.
He explained that ias.brdo.com.ua is a pilot module of the online system of inspections of Ukrainian enterprises, which now is a database on business structures and inspections.
“Today ias.brdo.com.ua even allows you know what inspections are planned for the next year. We plan that this system will also allow to be aware of effects of inspections conducted. For example, a Krivoy Rog enterprise was inspected, and you can see what violations were found out on the website. In addition, we believe that the system will increase the level of public control over activities of a potentially dangerous and risky enterprise,” the Head of the Better Regulation Delivery Office said.
Oleksiy Honcharuk specified that the website database contains only the information that can be available to the public.
“This system works with open data, there is no closed information. We will continue publish all the information, which is not closed according to the law, at ias.brdo.com.ua. However, if some information is an enterprise’s commercial secret under the law, we will not include it in these systems. As for the data preservation, the website has a back-up system (backup storage of information). Every day the system will save a copy of data on a separate server. If a failure occurs, this information can be easily restored,” he said.
According to the Head of the Better Regulation Delivery Office, this online database with a schedule of inspections is created for the purpose of ensuring the transparency of activities of inspection bodies and establishing communication with enterprises.
“Our goal is to create a website that will contain an exhaustive list of information about what can be done in entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurs just need to visit the website, answer a series of clarifying questions, and the system will provide them with all necessary information on their area of activities. In such a way, business owners will clearly understand what the state wants from them. This is also done to allow entrepreneurs to control themselves. My colleagues and I believe that if entrepreneurs understand what they are being asked for, why they need to manage risks and that managing risks is profitable, first of all, for entrepreneurs themselves, they will do it on their own,” he said.
In order to ensure that the conditions of inspections of business structures are transparent and the state requirements for enterprises are clear, officials will carry out a number of activities to fill the website with content.
“In 2018, this module will allow to make several key steps to implement the risk management system. The first one is the collection of statistics and information about risks. And at this stage, our task is to collect all information about risks (inspections), that is undesirable effects and
events, which occur and should be prevented, to understand what we are fighting and what we need to improve. The second one is to increase the effectiveness of supervision and control bodies. Now many bodies assess and build their effectiveness on the basis of the number of inspections conducted. That is wrong. Actually, they work, let’s say, to prevent fires, but not to fine and conduct inspections. In order to build a system of effectiveness of these bodies properly, we should understand what to compare with – for example, the situation in Vinnitsa and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Therefore, we need an assessment system of these bodies, which Ukraine doesn’t have today. And our online system will allow to achieve this in 2018,” Oleksiy Honcharuk said.
He also admitted that Ukrainian entrepreneurs have been working in conditions when the state’s requirements on their activities were not completely clear and not always justified, till the end of 2017.
“As a rule, business owners do not know what they are asked for. Let’s say, you have a kindergarten and are confident that you know all the rules for running this type of business. But it is so until inspectors visit you. When an inspector visit you, you will learn about many new things that you should do. Sometimes it is impossible to implement these “new things”, because the requirements are not only cumbersome, but also are not properly specified. In addition, there are also many outdated requirements. For example, in Ukraine, kindergartens are required to subscribe for some newspapers on a mandatory basis. Excuse me, but who needs this in the 21st century?” Oleksiy Honcharuk said.
Earlier, the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Maksim Nefedov said that since 2018 the Cabinet of Ministers would define the government bodies to be authorized to inspect the business.
Windows and doors are the main causes of heat losses in buildings. According to calculations, the windows provide almost 51% of heat losses in existing facilities in Ukraine.
Consumption volumes of windows and doors for buildings and facilities are related not only to the volumes of new construction projects – large volumes of these materials are consumed in capital and current repairs of real estate. Given the high energy prices, there is a great need for thermo-modernization of buildings and facilities built in Soviet times, which creates a considerable demand. The market for windows, doors and related furnishings is very important and has significant targeted government support. Today, Ukraine has both the state energy-efficiency program of “warm loans” (for individuals and housing cooperatives), IQenergy by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (for private individuals) and local programs for additional easing of “warm loans”. In total, Ukraine approved 128 local funding programs and 161 programs without defined funding. According to a survey of window manufacturers dealers, 72% of dealers are involved in the “warm loans” program and 16% – in the IQenergy program.
In 2016, Ukraine produced 2.5 million metal-plastic windows and doors, and the total area of wooden windows, frames, balcony and entrance doors with frames and sills was 1.96 million square meters. The market volumes and its significance for implementation of the state energy efficiency policy provided the basis for a thorough analysis of the quality of state regulation in this segment.
The introduction of a certification system based on modern international principles, the final harmonization of standards and technical regulation, the creation of an effective market surveillance system are the main aspects, which, according to experts, reduce the effectiveness of state regulation in the market.
You can find more information on findings of the analysis in the new Green Paper “Rolling review of the quality of state regulation of the market “Doors, windows, shutters, gates and related equipment for homes” published by BRDO experts to discuss with all market participants.
So, as you already know, a comprehensive inspection is an inspection of the same enterprise conducted by several supervision (control) bodies simultaneously. But what to do if this “inspection wave” is not convenient for your business? Can you refuse it and what happens then? In this case, you need to know about…
The New Year’s inspection life hack #3. Freedom from comprehensive inspection and other peculiarities
Yes, an entrepreneur has the right to refuse to have a comprehensive inspection. To do this, you need to send a written request for refusal from comprehensive inspections to the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine (SRS).
By the way, according to the current law regulating state supervision (control), this right is not restricted by conditions: you are not obliged to specify why you would like to refuse having a comprehensive inspection in your request.
However, this can be done for a limited period of time – from October 15 to November 15, when the annual plan of comprehensive inspections for the next year is developed. State supervision (control) bodies shall upload the information about business entities they plan to inspect next year to the integrated automated system (IAS) not later than October 15. The SRS should approve the plan of comprehensive inspections for the following year, publish it on its website and upload it to the IAS by November 15. During this period of time (between uploading information and approving the plan of comprehensive inspections), there is a technical possibility to change the draft plan of comprehensive inspections – and you can take advantage of the right to refuse to have them.
But what happens if you refuse to have a comprehensive inspection? The state supervision (control) bodies will inspect your enterprise on a stand-alone basis, according to the dates specified in their annual inspection plans.
ATTENTION! In this case, the total duration of all inspections during the year can not exceed 30 working days for large and medium enterprises and 15 working days for small and micro enterprises. If, after three inspections conducted in time frames specified (10 working days or 5 working days), another agency intends to inspect you, you have the right to refuse it.
In the first half of 2017, volumes of Ukrainian ceramic tile production increased by 29% compared to the same period in 2016 and amounted to 25.8 million square meters. And in 2016 – 45.3 million square meters.
In 2000, the import share in consumption of ceramic tiles was 55% in Ukraine, whereas in 2015, this rate was 23%. In general, Ukraine began exporting ceramic tiles to foreign markets in 2000, and the export has increased by 347 times for 15 years.
The products of Ukrainian producers are in demand and competitive in many markets. However, because of non-tariff barriers related to the ineffectiveness and slow processes of harmonization with the EU standardization system, we do not fully use the export potential of this sector.
As part of the Public Dialogue on system analysis of state regulation of markets, experts announced a certification fee for access to EU markets through authorized representative offices of foreign laboratories, which amounts up to $20,000. The production cost of Ukrainian ceramic tiles increases just by this sum when being exported to European countries. This fact reduces its attractiveness significantly.
Possible ways of resolving the problems of facilitating the transition to the international certification system, harmonization of the technical regulation and standardization system and increasing the effectiveness of market surveillance are the topics our experts analyzed in the green paper – the System analysis of the quality of state regulation of the market “Ceramic slabs and tiles” that we propose to discuss.
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The Law No.1817-VIII “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of Urban Development”, which came into force on June 10, 2017, abolished the complexity classes of construction projects that were replaced with the consequence (liability) classes: minor (CC1), middle (CC2) and projects with major consequences. However, restrictions, which do not include the possibility of engineering facilities of IV-V complexity classes in line with modern Eurocodes, harmonized in accordance with the requirements of the Association with the EU, are still valid at the sub-legislative level.
BRDO experts together with the Ministry of Regional Development prepared the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No.547, which extends the application of Eurocodes in engineering facilities of CC3 classes. It also removes inconsistencies and restrictions existed since 2011, but became particularly critical after the adoption of the law No.1817-VIII. This resolution was developed with the direct involvement of entrepreneurs and construction industry representatives. At the moment, the draft resolution is being agreed with the ministries and departments that will provide their comments.
The adoption of the Resolution No.547 will not only improve the regulation of engineering and construction processes, but also will have a significant impact on capabilities of Ukrainian constructors and entrepreneurs. Design engineers will be able to apply new, up-to-date engineering standards. And this will clear the way for modern production facilities, hotels, residential buildings, stadiums and shopping and entertainment centers. We look forward to the rapid approval of the resolution and its prompt implementation.
On December 15, the Ministry of Justice registered an order of the Ministry of Health developed together with the BRDO and the “Telas”, which amends the Health and Safety Regulations. Approved electromagnetic radiation of base stations of mobile communication operators remains at the level of 10 mW/cm2 that will allow operators to significantly reduce the time of deployment of 4G communication networks in Ukraine in 2018.
Amendments to Health and Safety Regulations take into account the “wishes” of the NGO “Institute of Public Health” set forth in their legal claim.
As a reminder, earlier the Ministry of Health has approved the hard-won order “On Approval of Amendments to the State Health and Safety Regulations and Rules for Protecting the Population from Electromagnetic Radiation Effects” developed with the support of BRDO experts and the Ukrainian Communication Operators Association Telas. This order increased the permissible level of electromagnetic radiation of base stations of mobile communication operators by 4 times (up to 10 mW/cm2) and excluded the term of “sanitary passport” from Health and Safety Regulations.
However, the NGO “Institute of Public Health” filed the lawsuit and, on December 7, 2017, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal granted the NGO’s request and, actually, suspended the effect of the order of the Ministry of Health until the completion of the case. After that, the Ministry of Health together with the BRDO and the “Telas” developed a new order, which includes amendments on the basis of NGO’s “wishes” set forth in the lawsuit. The new draft order of the Ministry of Health was approved by all interested bodies and registered in the Ministry of Justice.
The BRDO Office also believes that mobile operators are not obliged to receive sanitary passports for radio-technical facilities, since they are not included in the “List of Permits in the Field of Economic Activity” approved by the law of Ukraine. Operators themselves meet radiation standards specified in the Health and Safety Regulations and still obtain sanitary passports on their own initiative if necessary: for example, in the case of complaints from the population.