Govt provides extra UAH 2.3 bln for preferential loans to farmers, simplified registration of agricultural machinery

On Tuesday, the government of Ukraine provided an additional UAH 2.3 billion to support agricultural producers under the Affordable Loans 5-7-9 program, under which the government compensates the interest rate, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.

"We have also reformatted this program. Now every entrepreneur can get a loan at 0% in the amount of up to UAH 60 million. The state will pay the interest to the bank," he said at a government meeting.

As the Ministry of Finance said in a press release, the adopted resolution provides for the allocation of UAH 2.326 billion for preferential or interest-free lending to farmers for sowing with the possibility of government guarantees for 80% of the loan amount.

"If necessary, the Ministry of Finance will initiate an increase in spending on state support and the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) under the program," the ministry added.

The prime minister said that the planting season has already begun in all regions, except Luhansk.

"We have provided them [agrarians] with preferential financing for UAH 3.5 billion. At today's meeting of the government, we decided to simplify the registration of agricultural machinery as much as possible. We are doing this so that sowing work in the field does not stop anywhere," Shmyhal said.

The Ministry of Finance reported that under the Affordable loans 5-7-9 program from February 21 to April 11, a total of 1,391 loans were issued valued at UAH 3.95 billion.

The ministry recalled that the government support mechanism provides for partial or full compensation of interest on bank loans to business entities with the participation of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF), which activities are coordinated by the Ministry of Finance. To date, the EDF has concluded cooperation agreements with 42 banks. In total, since the launch of the program in February 2020, MSME representatives have received 36,213 loans from authorized banks for a total of UAH 93.6 billion.

Representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said in his Telegram channel that the government at a meeting on Tuesday approved the procedure for temporary registration during the period of martial law or a state of emergency of tractors, self-propelled chassis, self-propelled agricultural, road-building and reclamation machines, agricultural machinery and other mechanisms. "In particular, the list of documents for registering cars has been significantly reduced and it is envisaged that the inspection of vehicles will be carried out by state inspectors, if possible. It has also been established that the registration applications will be accepted on the principle of extraterritoriality," he said.

Melnychuk added that the Cabinet of Ministers also sent the remaining balance of the special fund of the state budget totaling UAH 540.9 million to the following programs: guidance and management in the field of agro-industrial complex, conducting an inventory of land and updating the cartographic basis of the State Land Cadastre, measures for the construction of border inspection posts and improving the access of agricultural SMEs to export markets.