For the second day in a row, a large-scale protest action of private individuals is taking place under the Verkhovna Rada building. Entrepreneurs came to parliament demanding the abolition of “weekend quarantine” for small businesses and the adoption of bills to protect the simplified system of taxation, accounting and reporting. Activists of the National Corps supported the protest of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the center of Kyiv.
After the spring lockdown, many small and medium-sized businesses have gone bankrupt or are on the verge of survival. Authorities support entrepreneurs only in words, while “weekend quarantine” is a severe financial blow to small business and the country’s economy. Meanwhile, in a pandemic, the authorities are concerned about their own enrichment. Funds from the coronavirus fund are being stolen by corruption schemes under the guise of “large-scale construction” of roads. In this situation, the proposal of the Deputy Minister of Health, Ms. Mykychak, who advised entrepreneurs to look for additional sources of income and go to work in the hospital, sounds like mockery.
Despite the protest action near the Verkhovna Rada, the Servant of the People party failed to vote against the “weekend quarantine.” In particular, only 34 people’s deputies of the presidential faction voted in favor. The parliament did not support the bill on postponing the introduction of cash registers for private individuals. So the protest will continue.
It will also be recalled that while small businesses suffer losses due to quarantine measures, oligarchs are finding loopholes. In particular, over the weekend, the National Corps together with entrepreneurs inspected the Epicenter retail chain in a number of Ukrainian cities, finding that stores continue to operate.