The staff of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi port may go without a salary

The labor team of SE “BDMTP” may be left without a salary due to the company’s conflict with the regional tax service.

The conflict began on June 26, when the director of the port, Oksana Kiktenko, received a notification from the bank about forced debiting of UAH 848,000 from the company’s accounts.

Kiktenko told about this in an interview with “Yug.Today.”

It turned out that an employee of the tax service of the Odesa region independently came to the bank with some kind of payment document and withdrew this money, which was intended for the salaries of port employees.

As a result of the actions of the tax service, the port lost almost the entire amount of salary for June.

At first, the department refused to comment on anything, but then it turned out that tax officials had provided the bank with a payment notice indicating some decision of the tax administration from 2018. On the basis of this decision, funds were forcibly withdrawn from the enterprise.

According to the director of the port, the tax officials violated several legal norms:

• the tax office withdrew money for salaries — this item of expenditure is protected both in peacetime and in wartime conditions (these funds cannot be withdrawn even to repay tax debts);

• the privatization procedure is currently underway at the port – during it, according to the law, the effect of any compulsory executive documents is suspended (the actions of the Odesa Tax Office are equated to executive procedures).

The Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi port has long been operating as a “dry port”, performing the functions of a logistics center. The water route for the port remains closed, and in such conditions the port can earn money only on the salary of the staff.

Currently, the company still has arrears in the amount of 11 million UAH for salaries. Recently, the port was able to pay employees 9 million hryvnias. Now, after the actions of the tax service, port workers are ready to go on a protest, Kiktenko said.

The company has already sent relevant applications to law enforcement agencies, the State Property Fund and Odesa Regional Military Administration. However, according to Oksana Kiktenko, the tax service has launched a debt recovery mechanism, as the department has also sent other debt claims to the company.

It is also important that the new owner of the port, who will be chosen during the privatization procedure, must fully repay the debts from salaries and taxes within 6 months after the purchase of the object. Therefore, the tax service has practically no risks that after privatization the new owner of the port will not pay the debts to the budget.

We will remind, on June 14, the auction for the privatization of the property complex of SE “Bilhorod-Dniestrovskyi Sea Trade Port” did not take place due to the lack of participants. This is already the third attempt to privatize the enterprise.

Previously, USM reported that the port needed investment and modernization to start full operation. This is possible only thanks to the involvement of a private investor.