The Supreme Court of Ukraine upheld the acquittal of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) against former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian in the case of reducing the port dues and causing damage to the governemnt in the amount of UAH 30.4 million, the Supreme Court said.

"The Supreme Court upheld the HACC verdict and the HACC Appellate Chamber's ruling," the Supreme Court told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

The court said the full text of the ruling would be made public on April 3, 2023.

As reported, NABU and SAPO suspected Omelian of committing illegal actions, as a result of which the national budget received less than UAH 30.5 million. The actions of the former official were qualified under Part 2 of Article 211 (issuance by an official of a normative legal act that reduces budget revenues contrary to the law, if the subject of such actions were budget funds in especially large amounts) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, in December 2017, the former minister issued an order to reduce all port dues (except lighthouse) by 20%. At the same time, one of these fees, administrative, is a revenue part of the national budget. Therefore, only the Verkhovna Rada, and not the minister, could change its size. As a result, the decision of the former official to reduce the port (administrative) fee led to the non-receipt of UAH 30.4 million to the national budget in 2018.