ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF UTILITY ENTERPRISES AND APPROACHES TO THEIR CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

The article examines the actual problems of the functioning of communal enterprises. It was determined that in most cities and regions of Ukraine there is a significant deterioration in the technical condition of the fixed assets of communal enterprises, a deterioration in the quality of services with a simultaneous increase in their cost, which leads to the emergence of complex problems of an technogenic and social nature. The purpose of the article is to assess the activity of communal enterprises of the territorial community of Kherson and to develop approaches to the classification of communal enterprises. It is substantiated that a communal enterprise is an enterprise that operates on the basis of communal property of a territorial community, or an enterprise in the charter capital of which the share of communal property of a territorial community is 50 percent or more. The trends of changes in the number of communal enterprises in Ukraine and the Kherson region during the decentralization period are analyzed. It was found that utility companies make up a small share of the total number of legal entities in Ukraine and their number is growing every year. It was found that the share of utility enterprises in the total number of legal entities in the Kherson region is almost twice as high as the similar indicator in Ukraine. The financial results of Kherson’s communal enterprises were analyzed and it was proved that most of them are not capable of self-financing. It has been established that under the conditions of digitalization, the insufficient disclosure of data on the activities of utility companies has a negative impact on the overall transparency of their financial condition and local finances as a whole. The legal, economic and financial approaches to the classification of utility companies are highlighted and new classification features are highlighted: the size of the utility company; tax and monopoly status of the enterprise. Further research should be aimed at studying the peculiarities of the organization and accounting methods of utility enterprises.