The Mykolaiv City Council has approved ₴18 million in «land concessions» for Nibulon

The Mykolaiv City Council has approved a land tax exemption for ‘Nibulon’. Photo: the company’s press office

The Mykolaiv City Council has approved a land tax concession for Nibulon worth 18 million hryvnias. It will remain in force for six months. During this time, the council plans to assess whether this is beneficial for the city’s budget.

The decision was passed by councillors at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 30 June, according to NikVesti.

This concerns over 50 hectares in the seaport of Mykolaiv, where Nibulon’s plant and terminal are located. The company is requesting an exemption from paying rent for land plots that cannot currently be used due to possible mine contamination.

Councillor Oleksandr Bereza proposed adding an item to the agenda regarding concessions for Nibulon — an exemption from land tax. According to his calculations, the city budget will remain in the black in any case.

«I’ve looked closely at the figures provided to the committee by the Department of Finance, and they show that in 2025, Nibulon paid 88 million hryvnias to the city budget. Of this, 18 million was specifically land tax, whilst 69 million hryvnias was personal income tax. Nibulon’s proposal is that they are requesting a concession — an exemption from land tax — and in return, they are offering to employ their staff from other regional branches in a newly established division in Mykolaiv. Consequently, it is projected that in 2026 the city budget will receive 20 million from personal income tax, whilst losing 18 million hryvnias as a result of granting the concession to the company,» said Oleksandr Bereza.

City Council Secretary Dmytro Falko noted that this issue was not considered by the budget committee yesterday, but had been discussed previously.

«As far as I recall, the main sticking point at the time was the manner in which the representative of the company Nibulon conducted themselves at the planning and budget committee meeting. Today, the representatives have changed,» said Dmytro Falko.

A session of the Mykolaiv City Council. Screenshot from the broadcast

Councillor Olena Kiseliova wanted to know what percentage of personal income tax remains in Mykolaiv’s budget. The Director of the Finance Department, Vira Svyatelik, replied that it was 64 per cent — 69 million hryvnias.

«In 2025, we received 69.5 million hryvnias from personal income tax. Property tax on the land plot amounted to one million. And land tax and rent totalled 17.9 million,» explained Vira Sviatelyk.

Councillor Andrii Yantar, referring to a company representative, noted that the average salary stands at 25,000 hryvnias. He therefore believed that even if employees were transferred to Mykolaiv, it would be necessary to consider whether personal income tax revenue would increase.

«They plan to transfer 600 people to Mykolaiv. What will they be doing there? Waiting to be made redundant? Digitalisation is currently underway at Nibulon. This means that at the grain elevator, where 100 employees used to work, there will now be 20. In other words, 20 per cent of staff have been made redundant since the start of the year. What sort of increase in personal income tax are we talking about by the end of the year? And land tax is a stable source of revenue for the budget, which, incidentally, is running a deficit,» said the councillor.

However, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych believed that digitalisation does not mean laying people off. Fedir Panchenko also stated that the exemption would remain in force until the end of the year, so the city council would then be able to review the decision.

After the issue was added to the agenda, councillors voted 29 in favour of exempting Nibulon from land tax for six months.

Background to the issue

It should be recalled that Nibulon stated that the land in question was likely to have been contaminated as a result of shelling, citing the results of a non-technical survey and fragments of ammunition discovered during inspections.

In March, the Budget Committee of the Mykolaiv City Council did not support Nibulon’s request for an exemption from paying rent on land potentially contaminated with explosive ordnance.

During the Budget Committee meeting, the company’s representative, Oleksandr Dolzhenkov, stated that if the request were rejected, the company might change the tax address of its divisions, which would result in a loss of revenue for the city budget.

Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, responded by saying that Mykolaiv risks losing at least 100 million hryvnias in annual tax revenue if councillors do not support granting the company land tax relief.

Meanwhile, in April, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that Nibulon had not sufficiently explained its request for a land rent concession.

In May, the Budget Committee considered Nibulon’s application for a rent exemption on land plots that may be contaminated with explosive ordnance for the third time. On this occasion, the application was approved.