Ruslan Kravchenko spoke about results of the State Tax Service in counteraction against shadow trading in the electronics, tobacco and public catering markets

Head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko met with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine and some of its members. These are 11 companies from various spheres.

Key question is shadow markets in certain sectors of economy: consumer electronics, e-commerce, tobacco products, public catering and fixed internet.

"We have a common vision on counteraction against the "shadow". It is not only about fair competition and equal working conditions for everyone. It is about protecting interests of consumers and revenues to the state budget. He told that the Tax Service has already done since the beginning of year to counteract the "shadow" – said Ruslan Kravchenko.

As for the consumer electronics market.

State Tax Service has conducted more than 800 tax control measures in a number of well-known chains that sell electronics of famous brands since the beginning of year. Another 200 are in progress, most of them with a time measurement of sales. Based on their results, penalties of 90.5 million UAH have already been applied.

"We are identifying schemes that have signs of the VAT evasion. Documents have been transferred to the law enforcement agencies" – added Head of the State Tax Service.

Ruslan Kravchenko also added that the excisable products control departments conducted almost 2.3 thousand audits in production and circulation of tobacco products in January – February of this year. Legislative violations were identified, and financial sanctions amounted to 30.77 million UAH.

In addition, based on the audit results, 312 licenses were suspended and 167 of them due to the fact of absence at place of activity. In cooperation with the law enforcement officers, tobacco products worth 3.77 million UAH were seized from illegal turnover.

Many violations have been identified in the public catering sphere, specifically settlement procedure, accounting of inventories, and unregistered hired employment.

This year, almost 1 000 audits have already been conducted, and fines have exceeded 13 million UAH.

"Systematic exposure of schemes is what ensures real counteraction against the shadow economy. And the State Tax Service’s task is to show that rules are the same for everyone" – added Ruslan Kravchenko.