REUTERS
The draft law was backed by 312 MPs with at least 226 votes required.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed bill No. 3275 to provide additional social and economic guarantees over the spread of the novel coronavirus, which, in particular, bans banks from increasing interest rates on loans for the quarantine period imposed by the government as part of measures to counter the spread of COVID-19.
The draft law was backed by 312 MPs with at least 226 votes required, an UNIAN correspondent reported on March 30.
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"During the implementation in Ukraine of measures to prevent the outbreak and spread of epidemics and pandemics, in particular, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an increase in the interest rate under a loan agreement is not allowed," says the bill amending the law on banks and banking activities.
The bill also provides for the extension until June 30 of a ban on conducting scheduled state inspections in the field of economic activities by state inspection agencies, except for state supervision (control).
The document also envisages temporary exemption from penalties for late payments of single social security tax, as well as for its incomplete payment or for delayed reports to the tax authorities, for the period until May 31.
"During the periods of March 1-31, April 1-30 and May 1-31, 2020, payers of the single [social security] tax are not charged a penalty, while accrued penalties for such periods are subject to writing off," the document says.
The bill also provides for a moratorium on documentary checks with regard to the correctness of accrual and payment of the single social security tax for the period from March 18 to May 31, 2020, as well as the suspension until May 31 of deadlines for considering claims by payers of single social security taxes.
In addition, this document provides for amendments to the Labor Code, according to which, by agreement between an employee and an owner of an enterprise, institution, organization or the body authorized by the latter, a flexible working schedule for a certain period or for an unlimited period may be developed for workers, both when hiring them and afterwards.
At the same time, it stipulates that a downtime through no fault of an employee for the quarantine period is paid at a rate of at least two-thirds of the pay rate, while relief for partial unemployment is calculated per hour by which the employee's working hours were reduced, at a rate of two-thirds of the pay rate (salary).
As UNIAN reported earlier, bill No. 3275 to amend some legislative acts aimed at providing additional social and economic guarantees over the spread of the coronavirus was registered in the Verkhovna Rada on March 29.
The Cabinet of Ministers last week decided to extend until April 24 the quarantine introduced in Ukraine over the spread of COVID-19.
The European Business Association (EBA) says almost half of Ukrainian companies have already recorded between 20% and 50% of revenue losses because of the quarantine measures taken by the government to combat the spread of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus.