At its meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers made changes to four normative acts regulating the use of subsoil in Ukraine.
The changes should ensure transparency, convenience and equal rules for access to the subsoil, it is reported by Ministry of Environment on Telegram.
The changes concern:
- The procedure for granting special permits for subsoil use without holding an auction;
- The procedure for holding electronic auctions for the sale of special permits for subsoil use;
- Methods of determining the value of geological information obtained at the expense of the state budget;
- Methods of determining the initial sale price at the auction of a special permit for the use of subsoil.
"We are striving today to establish transparent, convenient, equal rules for access to subsoil, to ensure balanced subsoil use in Ukraine. This is extremely important for the country's defense capability and the recovery of the economy," said the head of the Ministry of Environment, Ruslan Strilets.
He also explained that during reconstruction, the demand of the construction industry for materials and raw materials, minerals will be enormous. Therefore, the Ministry of Environment is already increasing the efficiency and transparency of electronic auctions, eliminating opportunities for abuse and work in the field by unscrupulous and sanctioned persons. The reduction of procedures and digitization of processes is also ongoing.
Key changes for businesses operating or planning to operate in the field of subsoil use:
- Automated calculation of the cost of geological information and the amount of the fee for granting a special permit for subsoil use. This will speed up the procedure by at least 20 days.
- In order to prevent the participation of sanctioned persons in auctions, the requirement to submit information on the ultimate beneficial owner has been introduced.
- In order to avoid cases of disruption of electronic auctions by unscrupulous enterprises, a minimum guaranteed contribution, which must be paid by participants, has been established. Its size ranges from UAH 0.5 to 10 million, depending on the groups of minerals.
- The requirement to sign contracts for the purchase and sale of permits using an electronic digital signature has been established.
- The issue of automatic extension of the period of validity of special permits for the use of subsoil for the period of martial law has been settled.
- Subsoil users are expected to submit applications in electronic form, in particular through the electronic subsurface user's office, which will be integrated with the single ecological platform "EkoSistema".
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in Ukraine the priority steps for the formation of a strategic work plan for the sector subsoil use in military conditions time and the post-war period are identified.
