REUTERS
The company's payments accounted for about 16% of the national budget's total revenue in 2019.
CEO of National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev says the company plans in the first quarter of 2020 to pay taxes on US$2.9 billion received from Russia's gas giant Gazprom under the Stockholm Arbitration's award.
"The Naftogaz group [of companies] remains the largest source of state budget revenue. In 2019, the company paid over UAH 120 billion [US$5 billion] in taxes and dividends," he wrote on Facebook on January 15.
"In the fourth quarter, we paid over UAH 15 billion [US$625.5 million] in taxes and dividends ahead of schedule," he added.
According to Kobolyev, the company's payments accounted for about 16% of the national budget's total revenue last year. He says such dependence on a single, although large company, poses risks. Therefore, reforms need to be accelerated so that five or six players such as Naftogaz could be in the country.
Kobolyev says Naftogaz will no longer receive revenue from gas transit via Ukraine, as the country's GTS operator (LLC Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine/GTSOU) was unbundled from the company in 2019.
As UNIAN reported earlier on December 27, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine received US$2.9 billion from Russia's Gazprom under the Stockholm Arbitration's award, which made it possible to start the signing of a new gas transit contract between Ukraine and Russia.