Despite the promises of Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Goncharuk to reduce energy tariffs, neither tariffs nor prices for goods and services are being reduced.
Economic expert Yuriy Gavrilechko stated this in an interview with the Ukrlife.TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Firstly, the prime minister is not responsible for this. Secondly, our cabinet of ministers is not responsible for anything at all. In our country, no one is responsible for anything at all. Officials in the Cabinet of Ministers, heads of departments, specialists - they are responsible. If they violate job descriptions, they will be reprimanded, deprived of bonuses, and possibly fired.
But everything is fine with ministers, they can afford to say anything and not be responsible for anything. As I have repeatedly said, there are no demands on our ministers. There are officials, there are secretaries of state, but there are no ministers.
The minister may not know anything, not be able to do anything, and he is not responsible for anything, because this responsibility is not spelled out anywhere. And the Cabinet of Ministers as a whole, as a collegial body, is also not responsible for anything, because it is impossible to bring people to administrative or criminal liability collectively in Ukraine. This is not legally defined.
Therefore, he can promise anything, but the result is what we see: tariffs are rising, rent is increasing, wages are also nominally growing, excise taxes are increasing, the tax base is changing towards expansion.
As a result, the cost of goods and services produced in Ukraine is rising. And this very increase in cost is in no way covered by the same strengthening of the hryvnia, despite the fact that a significant part of this cost itself falls on expenses one way or another related to what we import.
And so, as long as this imbalance persists, that is, the increase in costs will exceed the effect of the revaluation of the mane, we will have a situation where, while the hryvnia is strengthening, prices rise,” the economist concluded.