NBU Eases Currency Restrictions, Introduction of Electronic Licenses

NBU Eases Currency Restrictions

On 11 July 2024, Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 83 “On Amendments to Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 18 dated 24 February 2022” has entered into force.

As noted, the relevant changes are aimed at increasing Ukraine’s investment attractiveness and attracting foreign capital.
The main changes in accordance with the Resolution are as follows:

from now on, Ukrainian businesses will be able to reimburse expenses to non-residents who participated in providing a external loan to a Ukrainian borrower.
The main condition for such reimbursement is that the guarantor, surety or insurer of the external loan must be a foreign export credit agency, a foreign state or an IFI;
it is now allowed to transfer funds to foreign companies with a foreign state as a shareholder or participant to pay insurance premiums under contracts covering military risks in Ukraine;
residents are now able to transfer funds under guarantees or sureties provided by them to secure the fulfillment of obligations of resident borrowers under external loans and borrowings (provided that such payments by a resident borrower are permitted by Resolution No. 18);
regulates the possibility of residents to purchase foreign currency to reserve for an IFI loan.

The Resolution also allows businesses to pay fees for actions related to the protection of intellectual property rights, including payment for services provided by patent offices of other countries and services of patent attorneys abroad.

Introduction of Electronic Licenses And Permits

Ukraine is launching a pilot project to implement the Unified State Electronic System of Permits.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 795 dated 05 July 2024, which officially launched the project.
The pilot project envisages the digitalization of the full cycle of permit issuance procedures. Entrepreneurs who join the project will be able to, in particular:

submit applications and relevant documents in electronic form for obtaining, renewing, suspending or revoking licenses, expanding or narrowing business activities, etc;
inform about changes in documents and information that were attached to the application;
create and submit declarations of compliance of the material and technical base with the requirements of the legislation on labor protection;
receive information on the status or results of consideration of electronic documents;
pay for the provision of administrative services;
complain about the actions (inaction) of the licensing authority regarding its violation of the requirements of the licensing legislation.

The system will operate in automatic mode. Thus, all submitted applications and documents will be checked automatically, and based on the results of the check, the type of document registration procedure will be selected. Both automatic registration and registration with the involvement of representatives of state authorities are possible. The decision to issue a license must be made within 10 days.

At the first stage of the project, it will be possible to obtain, in particular:

a license to conduct business activities for tour operator activities
a license to conduct business activities in veterinary practice;
a license to carry out economic activities for the circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors;
license to conduct educational activities at the level of preschool education;
a declaration of compliance of the material and technical base with the requirements of labor protection legislation.

The list of services will be expanded starting from October 2024.