Six state-owned enterprises (SOE), including JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo and PrJSC United Mining and Chemical Company, have been deprived of benefits to pay dividends for 2018, in particular over the failure to meet their investment programs, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said.

"Regarding the cancellation of benefits for six companies that were granted to them, these benefits were provided by the previous Cabinet under several requirements: 1) not to underestimate the total amount paid; 2) for some investment development program. Since both conditions were not met, the benefits were canceled," Markarova wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.

According to her, the increase in the requirement for dividends of SOE should bring an additional UAH 2 billion of revenues, while at present, the shortfalls amounted to UAH 10 billion.

As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers in December increased the requirement for dividend payment for six state-owned companies, and the exception for the payment of dividends in the form of 30% of net profit was left only for Oschadbank. The government increased the dividend payment requirement for 2018 for JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo and PrJSC United Mining and Chemical Company from 30% to 90% of net profit. The basic requirement for allocation of net profit for dividend payment at the end of 2018 for enterprises with a state-owned share increased to 90% of net profit from 50%.