On October 4, the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy asked the law enforcement officers to complete the work started on stopping illegal tobacco production in connection with the resumption of its work after a 3-month layoff, said committee chairman Danylo Hetmantsev.
“Unfortunately, the worst scenario happened: the criminal activity of producers in the west of the country resumed after a three-month standstill. The law enforcement system could not withstand the pressure of criminals. And the crime resumed”, – he wrote in the Telegram channel on Saturday.
In the decision of the committee, which Hetmantsev conveyed to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, it is stated that thanks to the coordinated measures of the Economic Security Bureau (BEB) and the State Tax Service (SST), it was established that for a long time, officials of five enterprises of tobacco industry producers under cover of legal activity in the production of tobacco products established an illegal scheme of illegal production of unaccounted for tobacco products (both own brands and well-known global brands). In the future, they were illegally sold on the territory of Ukraine using fake excise tax stamps, and were also smuggled to EU countries, where they were sold for cash.
It is noted that for four months comprehensive measures were taken to conduct searches at the production facilities of such tobacco manufacturing enterprises, seizing samples of tobacco products, conducting forensic and forensic examinations (which established that the equipment was used for the illegal manufacture of tobacco products), and also took measures from the removal of production lines used in the illegal production of tobacco products.
The Committee states that such measures effectively prevented the illegal production of tobacco products by the specified companies. As a result, receipts to the state budget of excise tax from manufactured and imported tobacco products in June-July this year exceeded the receipts for the same period last year by UAH 4.6 billion, or 33.6%, and the level of illegal trade in tobacco products in Ukraine, according to research Kantar Ukraine, decreased from 25.7% in October 2023 to 14.6% in July this year.
“However, according to the data available to the Committee, there is a resumption of criminal activity by domestic producers who, during searches of their production facilities, did not provide the opportunity to conduct examinations of equipment related to the production of illegal products (without excise tax stamps),” the decision states.
In this regard, the committee appealed to the director of the BEB to urgently analyze the cases of resumption of such illegal activities and to identify the BEB employees who are guilty of this, if any, and to the State Tax Service to take measures to prevent the receipt (extension) of licenses for the right to produce tobacco products to persons suspected of committing crimes.
In addition, the committee asks the National Police and the State Tax Service to jointly check the operation of retail outlets selling tobacco products, to send proposals for increasing fines for illegal trade in tobacco products.
In addition, the committee asks the National Police and the State Tax Service to jointly check the operation of retail outlets selling tobacco products, to send proposals for increasing fines for illegal trade in tobacco products.
“DPS, BEB to immediately stop abuse on the market of liquids for electronic cigarettes by preventing retail trade in the territory of Ukraine of tobacco raw materials, raw materials for liquids used in electronic cigarettes, and/or nicotine… individually or in sets,” the document also reads.
“Now everything depends on how society and the healthy part of the state will react to a relapse and overcome the disease for good,” Hetmantsev concluded.
