National Deputy of Ukraine, head of the People's Party faction (formerly the People's Agrarian Party) in the Verkhovna Rada, member of the Committee on the Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety Ihor Yeremieiev, according to his own words, decided to devote his press conference for Volyn media to the results of the presidential race and "that story which is well known and quite often present on television screens and in the press." By "that story," as became clear later, he meant his conflict with Justice Minister Roman Zvarych and the visit to the ministry headed by him.
And Ihor Myronovych began with a reminder that it was he who, a year earlier, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law that abolished the privileges for those privileged companies that exist in the Liubeshiv and Kamin-Kashyrskyi districts.
– For a year we could not get the law through the Verkhovna Rada, – the national deputy admitted. – For several reasons. The main one – each privileged company had an official – either in the Presidential Administration or in the Cabinet of Ministers, who, so to speak, "covered" this company. Already after the creation of the new government, I met several times with the ministers of economy and finance, the prime minister, and gave several of my proposals on how the legislation of Ukraine regarding oil refining could be changed in order to make the work scheme more transparent.
Ihor Yeremieiev spoke about his proposals that he submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers. From January 1, the legislation of Ukraine changed, and for oil entering Ukraine, VAT is refunded to Russian importers. But Ukraine is the only country that has an intergovernmental agreement under which the same oil is customs-cleared on the territory of Ukraine at a zero VAT rate. Business does not sleep. If oil is customs-cleared on the territory of Ukraine for at least one day and then cleared for export, it will already be a Ukrainian good, and if so, it cannot exist on the territory of Ukraine without VAT. This is what privileged companies take advantage of, sending goods out of Ukraine every other day and putting VAT up for refund. Already in January, three companies appeared at the Brody checkpoint, each of which declared 3 million tons of oil. The company "Transit Oil" actually tried to pull off this operation.
According to Ihor Yeremieiev, thanks to his intervention, the State Customs Service suspended the re-export operation. And then the Cabinet of Ministers also adopted a decision to introduce 20 percent VAT on crude oil. According to the national deputy, no one will re-export oil now.
Ihor Yeremieiev expressed the opinion that now there will be no "heroic deeds" before the sowing campaign, when fuel was frantically sought. He is generally convinced that the imperfections of legislation will no longer be used.
The national deputy of Ukraine answered questions that also concerned the possibility of raising prices for oil and petroleum products (if there is growth, it will be insignificant, at least until April–May), and the activities of the new government, which he assesses positively and at the same time cautiously criticized.
Ihor Yeremieiev, answering one of the questions about his attitude toward the former and new regional authorities, stated that he would not "pour mud" on Anatolii Frantsuz, and, in his opinion, Borys Klymchuk "was an absolutely correct governor for this territory, because he gave our producers and our businessmen the opportunity to develop." He supported the candidacy of Volodymyr Bondar and himself proposed that he head the regional state administration, because he sees that Bondar can become a consolidating governor.
Answering a question from a "Volyn" correspondent about his visits to the ministries of economy and justice, where, according to press reports, he acted exclusively in the interests of the company "Halychyna," Ihor Yeremieiev denied that he had called himself an assistant to Yulia Tymoshenko, since the position of faction leader is significantly higher and he could not introduce himself as an assistant to the prime minister, as Roman Zvarych had claimed. According to Ihor Yeremieiev's version, on February 10 he was indeed at the Ministry of Justice and set out his position to the minister – that he, Zvarych, is being drawn by someone into a story in which he does not understand, not because he is not a professional as a lawyer, but because he does not have the necessary information about the oil refining industry. Ihor Myronovych arranged a repeat meeting with the minister, and a few hours later arrived at the ministry with the necessary documents and spoke with Olena Ferents, the head of the department. If someone says that I dictated something to someone or authoritarianly pressured the Ministry of Justice, then, as they say – "no comment," the national deputy concluded.
Ihor Yeremieiev said that he has no direct interest in this matter. He is in favor of working as transparently as possible in the future. The national deputy also spoke out against the indiscriminate dismissal of heads of district state administrations, citing as an example a good specialist, the now former head of the Manevychi district state administration Leontii Krychkevych. According to Ihor Myronovych, he told Volodymyr Bondar that it is precisely people like Krychkevych who should not be dismissed, but he was not heeded. True, the journalists themselves reminded the national deputy about the behavior during the presidential campaign of both the former head of the Lutsk district state administration Vadym Naumenko and the same Mr. Krychkevych.
Volodymyr LYS