Draft

Bankruptcy

The Draft Act On Changes to Article 184 of the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding differences in legislation, of 22 September 2015, No.3164, has been submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The aim of the Draft is to improve procedures for solvency restoration of a debtor or adjudication of its bankruptcy, to eliminate differences between the Code and the Act, to avoid a possibility of incurrence of new encumbrances for a debtor, the insolvency of which is already adjudicated by an economic court, and to meet the maximum number of creditors’ demands through sale of its assets at the highest price.

Private contractors

The Draft Act On Introduction of Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (regarding private contractors) of 14 August 2015, No.2508а, has been submitted by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

The Draft supplemented the list of taxable subjects engaged in independent professional activities with a new category — private contractors. Particularly, independent professional activity is the engagement of an individual in scientific, literary, artistic, educational or teaching activities, activities of doctors, private notaries, private contractors, lawyers, insolvency receivers (administrators of estate, official receivers, liquidators), auditors, accountants, appraisers, engineers or architects, persons engaged in religious (missionary) activities, other similar activities, provided such person is not an employee or an individual entrepreneur and uses hired labor of no more than four individuals.

Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code

The Draft Act On Introduction of Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine (regarding extending the scope of persons, to whom certain types of pre-trial restrictions cannot be applied) of 11 September 2015, No.3066, was submitted by a group of MPs.

The Draft proposes to establish that pre-trial restrictions in the form of personal recognizance, personal surety, house arrest, recognizance within three months from the date of receipt by court of a petition for application of pre-trial restrictions, cannot be applied to persons, who are suspected or accused of having committed corruption offenses provided for by Articles 189, 190,191, 262, 308, 312, 313, 320, 357, 410 (in case they have been commitment through the abuse of office), as well as corruption-related crimes provided for by Articles 209, 210, 354, 364, 364-1, 365, 365-2, 368-369-2  of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, if such persons:

1) hold particularly responsible position according to part one of Article 9 of the On State Service Act;

2) hold offices, classified by part two of Article 25 of the On State Service Act as the first and second categories;

3) are judges of local and general courts of appeal;

4) are employees of law-enforcement agencies.

Furthermore, it is stipulated that upon expiry of the mentioned three months, an investigating judge, court may decide to change the pre-trial restriction for a certain person with a recognizance and house arrest.

Enforcement proceedings

The Draft Act On Enforcement Proceedings of 14 August 2015, No. 2507a has been submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The innovation contained in the Draft includes introducing the concept of private bailiffs as one of the prospective lines of enforcement proceedings development, the legal status and activity of which is established by the On Authorities and Persons Engaged in the Enforcement of Court Decisions and Decisions of other Agencies Act of Ukraine.

The Draft contains a list of decisions that cannot be enforced by private bailiffs (under which a debtor is the state, public authorities, local government authorities, their officials, state and communal enterprises, institutions, organizations, legal entities, which are funded solely through the state and/or local budgets, or the share of the state in which exceeds 25%; under which the recoveror is the state, public authorities; the decisions providing for performing actions with regard to state-owned or communal property, decisions on moving in and eviction of individuals, etc.).

To ensure effective enforcement proceedings, full execution of decisions, the Draft Act, in particular, identified enforcement proceedings principles aimed at ensuring protection of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities; expanded the list of decisions, which are subject to enforcement; provided for the formation of public Unified Register of Debtors; introduced automation of decision enforcement procedures by online registration of documents, full fixation of proceeding decisions and enforcement procedures in the automated system, the procedure for operation, provision of information and conditions of access to which are determined by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice; improved timing of enforcement procedures carrying out; provided for stepping up the responsibility of a debtor in enforcement proceedings, substantial increase of fines imposed by a bailiff; updated the mechanism of administration of an advance installment and execution fee; introduced a possibility to sell seized property through its sale at electronic auctions taking into account the restrictions established by the Draft Act; improved the system of deductions from salaries and other revenues of a debtor, procedure for enforcement of decisions on moving in, re-employment of the recoveror, procedure for enforcement of decisions under which a debtor is obliged to perform certain actions or to abstain from performing them, on seized property storage conditions, estimation of a debtor’s property value, evaluation of a debtor’s property, etc.

Alternative fuels

The Draft Act On Changes to Article 8 of the Act of Ukraine On Alternative Fuels of 15 October 2015, No.3330, has been submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The purpose of the Draft is to simplify the conditions for conducting entrepreneurial activities in the field of production of biofuels by exclusion from the On Alternative Fuels Act of provisions related to maintaining the state register of liquid biofuels producers and biogases by an agency authorised by the government, and revocation of the requirement to register economic entities carrying out economic activities in the field of production, storage and introducing biofuels and biogases, in this register.