According to Mr. Nitsovych, the passage of this legislative act will help to do something about “dormant” licenses. “In Ukraine, almost 30% of licensed sites may be categorized as “dormant”, i.e. those which haven’t been used for years. The law requires companies to report on every project, and therefore, it will allow to determine who uses the right to extract resources and how efficiently it is being used”, Roman Nitsovych said.
“Only extractive businesses know extraction economy and whether extracted resources are spent on yachts, apartments in London, etc. for the benefit of a narrow circle of senior execs of extractive businesses, or they generate budget revenues. Neither the government nor the society has this information”, MP Ostap Yednak, a co-author of the draft law said.
In his opinion, the passage of the draft law 6229 will help correct the national policy which regulates extractive industries.
He reminded the audience that a year ago, the parliament has “killed” the previous version of this document after lacking just one vote in support of the bill. “We could have already had a law that opens the entire information regarding extractable resources, regarding output of a particular well, regarding particular deposits, licenses, and all tax payments. It would’ve made extractive industry absolutely transparent”, Mr. Pidlisetskyi stressed.