Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian intends to submit a proposal to reduce the percentage of net profits that state enterprises in the port industry are required to pay as dividends at the next meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Omelian announced this in comments to the CFTS correspondent on August 6.

“The … position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure and businesses, which is supported by the Presidential Office, is that this proportion should be reduced to 50%. I plan to put the relevant proposal on the Cabinet’s agenda on August 14. I hope that a decision will be made in favor of state-owned companies in the maritime sphere and related spheres," Omelian said.

Asked whether other state-owned transport enterprises should expect reduction of their dividend rate, Omelian said that the Ministry of Infrastructure did not yet have the instruments for achieving this.

As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the state-owned Ukrainian Seaports Authority (USPA) expects the Cabinet of Ministers to decide to reduce the proportion of its profit it pays to the state as dividends. “The proportion of profits that enterprises are required to pay into the state budget has changed four times since 2016: 30% in 2016, 75% in 2017, 50% in 2018, and 90% in 2019-2020. This makes long-term planning and implementation of large investment projects that the AMPU should implement impossible. Deduction of 90% of the enterprise’s profits completely deprives it of investment resources," the Ukrainian Seaports Authority’s head Raivis Veckagans said.

Business associations are also calling for reduction of the proportion of net profits that state enterprises in the port industry are required to pay as dividends from 90%. For example, the Ukrainian national committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine) believes that "reduction of the percentage of net profit that is payable into the state budget will free up the USPA’s resources to enable it to finance infrastructure projects of strategic importance. It will also allow it to make capital expenditures on modernization of port infrastructure and revise port charges with the aim of bringing them into line with the global competitive environment."