| 383 views |
Ukraine: Flowers in winter, berries for spring
Views:Every day brings new evidence of the development of the Ukrainian economic crisis. Both private entrepreneurs and public sector workers are losing income.
A friend of mine kept a small hotel in Dnepropetrovsk, something like a hostel. He recently admitted to me that he no longer wants to be involved in the hotel business, the business is closing, and the owner is leaving for Kazakhstan.
There are very few tourists (foreigners are afraid of war, and locals have no money), new prices for utilities make maintaining a large premises very expensive.
This situation is not only in almost front-line Dnepropetrovsk. In Kyiv, those who are not ready to leave the market, hoping for better times, resort to total saving tactics. For example, Radisson on Podol closes entire floors of the hotel for conservation, which helps save on payments for both utilities and staff.
By the way, Ukrainian hotels, due to the collapse of the hryvnia, have become almost the cheapest in Europe. Nowadays you can rent a room in a decent 5-star hotel in Kyiv for 70 euros. In the Czech Republic this is at least 200 euros, in France – 350. However, such a low price is a death sentence for international chains. After all, they record their profits in foreign currency, since the head office is located abroad. And if Ukraine in the overall network has the lowest profitability indicators, then the question will arise about the advisability of the hotel chain staying in this country.
Paradoxically, the cheapest establishments that initially had low profitability are the first to close, hoping to win on turnover.
The Euro 2012 championship did a disservice to the Ukrainian hotel business. Back then, new hotels were being built in a hurry, and the authorities claimed that after the football festival, tourists would trample on to Ukraine like fools. It turned out that they weren’t bad and didn’t trample.
But it’s much worse for Ukrainian state employees than for business. They had to come to terms with the cancellation of salary increases, despite inflation of more than 25%. And now a new misfortune has come - teachers and doctors in Ukraine may be left without wages for a month or two due to changes in legislation.
The reason is the urgent adoption of the 2015 state budget by deputies of the Verkhovna Rada the night before the New Year holidays.
Starting from January, the maintenance of schools and hospitals should be carried out through state subsidies. That is, Kyiv transfers money to local budgets so that they pay doctors and teachers. It is assumed that the State Treasury will transfer money every 10 days. However, the Treasury threw up its hands and said that there was no authority for this.
After this, the throwing of papers began - the Ministry of Finance sent a letter to the State Treasury stating that they have such a right, despite the lack of a regulatory framework. The State Treasury, in turn, stated that, regardless of who they transfer the money to, such transactions must be separately supported by a document indicating the financing procedure. The document is developed by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, and then approved by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers.
But January is already coming to an end, and the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk has not yet submitted this resolution for consideration, and is only going to do so on January 28!
In some areas, the possibility is now being considered that payments will be made from local budgets without state assistance. Kyiv, they say, will compensate later.
However, as you know, the initiative is punishable - there is a possibility that later teachers’ salaries will be recognized as misappropriation of funds, and official Kyiv will simply not return the money. Therefore, local budgets will do everything at their own peril and risk, and only if they decide to do so.
What about the teachers who haven’t seen money for more than a month? It must be admitted that there are only altruists left in schools. Judge for yourself - in 2014, the average salary in the country was about 3350 hryvnia, while a teacher earned an average of 2400. This includes bonuses and overtime. Because the bare salary is 1800. At the current exchange rate, it’s less than $100 a month.
One way or another, the story of non-payment of salaries to teachers and doctors is further proof that the 2015 budget from Yatsenyuk was written in a “bungler”. On voting night, many deputies had no idea why they were pushing the buttons.
So, it is likely that other categories of citizens will face troubles just like teachers and doctors.
And then it turns out that the country is bankrupt.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.