Representatives of the State Tax Service (STS), the Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine completed a two-month search at the United Tobacco (United Tobacco LLC, Zheltye Vody, Dnipropetrovsk oblast), which resulted in the suspension of its “semi-legal” activities.
About the work stoppage of the enterprise, only during the full-scale Russian aggression did not pay to the state budget of Ukraine more than 5 billion UAH of excise tax, said the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy Daniel Getmantsev.
“A huge semi-legal tobacco factory finally ceased to exist. Since 2015, the factory became a symbol of Ukrainian corruption, saturating the market with excise-free tobacco under the tacit consent of all law enforcement officers who were blind to the work of the superpowered enterprise. The SBU search of the factory lasted more than two months, during which the crooks tried to delay the actions of investigators and “cut” using their usual tools,” wrote the head of the Committee in his Telegram-channel.
According to Getmantsev, seven ultra-modern cigarette production lines were arrested and dismantled at the factory.
“Two more, which the thieves brought into Ukraine, but did not have time to install, will be found and seized in the near future,” he added.
As reported, earlier Getmantsev said that law enforcement officers have been searching the United Tobacco factory, which is suspected of illegal production of tobacco products, since September. Law enforcers have already identified suspects of the crime and assessed the scale of illegal activities.
United Tobacco has had previous conflicts with law enforcement agencies: in August 2021 officers of the State Fiscal Service (SFS, after last year’s reforms – Bureau of Economic Security) conducted a search at the factory on the case of illegal production of counterfeit cigarettes, but their work was blocked by a group of unidentified persons. The investigators’ entry to the factory was blocked by heavy machinery, a mass gathering of “sports people” and local residents.
In turn, United Tobacco accused the officers of the State Financial Service of exceeding their authority, blocking the work of the enterprise and causing injury to employees.
According to the State Tax Service, during January-August 2021 the officers seized almost 800 thousand packs of tobacco products worth about 13 million UAH, made under the United Tobacco brand without excise tax marks. Factory’s products were repeatedly seized during searches by tax police of warehouses and places of sale of counterfeit.
According to a tobacco market research institute “Kantar Ukraine”, the share of illicit tobacco products in the Ukrainian market in August 2022 increased by 5 percentage points (p.p.) compared with the annual average of 2021 – to 21.9% from 16.9%, the volume of the shadow market was the highest since the independence of Ukraine.
The Institute specified that 56% of the tobacco products illegally sold in 2022 as export or Duty Free products have the mark of production of Vinnikivska Tobacco Factory (Vinniki, Lviv region) and marked as not intended for sale in Ukraine. The share of unidentified producers was 24% (in 2021 – 23%), United Tobacco LLC (Zheltye Vody, Dnepropetrovsk oblast) – 19% (in 2021 – 15%).
TK-Style garment factory (Chernihiv), which is part of the group of companies Textile Contact, early June this year plans to complete the shipment of almost 10,000 jackets (7,000 for men and 2,900 for women) to the mounted police of Germany, the founder of the Textile Contact Group Oleksandr Sokolovsky has said.
“Now, if you meet mounted policemen in Germany, you can ask them to say hello to Ukraine! In December 2020, our TK-Style sewing factory managed to receive a very difficult order for sewing jackets for the German Mounted Police, and from the middle of March 2021 the team factories began to actively sew them off,” Sokolovsky wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, each unit of the product is under the strictest control. Jackets are multi-piece, with complex technological processing and with a large variety of accessories.
“Since the order with an increased requirement for quality and manufacturing accuracy, during the entire time while it is being sewn, the customer’s representatives have been at the factory,” Sokolovsky said.
At the same time, he expressed the hope that “we will come in handy for our Ministry of Internal Affairs someday.”
The sewing factory TK-Style specializes in sewing outerwear, shoulder and waist garments, and employs more than 150 people.
Textile Contact, one of the largest trade and production groups on the Ukrainian light industry market, was founded in 1995.
The State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine has put up for auction on May 7 with an initial price of UAH 187.64 million a single property complex of the state-owned enterprise Dunaivtsi grain processing factory (Dunaivtsi village, Khmelnytsky region), which will become the first privatized state asset in the grain processing industry, the fund said on its website on Wednesday.
According to the fund, earlier, such plants were one of the key links in the agricultural monopoly controlled by the state, but with the transition to a free market, this asset became non-core for the state.
The SPF noted that most of the plants cannot be called successful, but these assets have excellent investment potential, since they were created as production sites in profitable locations and with a developed logistics infrastructure. The enterprises have powerful elevators and access to railways, as well as developed capacities for storage or transshipment of products.
The fund said that the privatization of grain processing factories is beneficial for all participants in the process: the state fills the budget and receives a revival of economic activity, investors – assets important for business development, and local communities – jobs and development of territories.
Dunaivtsi grain processing factory is engaged in the production of products of the flour and cereal industry and feed for animals kept on farms, wholesale trade in grain, unprocessed tobacco, seeds and animal feed.
The fund noted that the asset consists of buildings and structures with a total area of 79,800 square meters, including an administrative building, a canteen, bakeries, elevators, a mill, a laboratory, warehouses, workshops, garages and other outbuildings. The total area of the enterprise’s land plots is 67.3 hectares, on which there is the necessary technological equipment and communications: water supply, electricity, sewerage and access roads.
The plant in 2020 reduced its net profit by 14.2% compared to 2019, to UAH 2.26 million, its assets increased 2.4 times, to UAH 193.66 million, and total accounts receivable decreased by 16.9%, to UAH 20.24 million.
Kokhavynska paper factory (Lviv region), a tissue and toilet paper producer (the Kokhavynka trademark), in January 2020 increased production by 2.8% compared with January 2019, to UAH 42.09 million.
According to the UkrPapir association, production of paper at the factory in kind decreased 5.7%, to 3,150 tonnes. At the same time, production of toilet paper fell by 10.5%, to 8.6 million rolls (a total of 55 million rolls was made in Ukraine in January 2020, a rise of 1.7%).
Kokhavynska paper factory has been operating since 1939. The factory producers base paper for hygienic goods, toilet paper and paper towels. The capacity of paper making machines is 19,000 tonnes per year, processing equipment 90 million rolls a year.
The factory exports about 40% of the products. The main consumers abroad are the Czech Republic, Romania, as well as companies from Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, and the Netherlands.
As reported, in 2019, the factory produced goods worth UAH 547.64 million, which is 1.6% more than a year earlier, paper production grew by 2.3%, to 37,900 tonnes.
Kokhavynska paper factory (Lviv region), a tissue and toilet paper producer (the Kokhavynka trademark), in 2019 increased production by 1.6% compared with 2018, to UAH 547.64 million.
According to the Ukrpapir association, production of paper at the factory in kind increased 2.3%, to 37,900 tonnes. At the same time, production of toilet paper rose by 2.4%, to 113.69 million rolls (a total of 677.38 million rolls was made in Ukraine in 2019, a rise of 4.4%).
Kokhavynska paper factory has been operating since 1939. The factory producers base paper for hygienic goods, toilet paper and paper towels. The capacity of paper making machines is 19,000 tonnes per year, processing equipment 90 million rolls a year.
The factory exports about 40% of the products. The main consumers abroad are the Czech Republic, Romania, as well as companies from Belarus, Moldova, Hungary, and the Netherlands.
As reported, in 2018, the factory produced goods worth UAH 538.78 million, which is 27.8% more than a year earlier, paper production grew by 11%, to 37,050 tonnes.
JTI Ukraine, a large tobacco company, after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and ministers on Thursday has said that it resumes production at its factory in Kremenchuk (Poltava region) following the similar announcement made by British American Tobacco Ukraine.
“After yesterday’s fruitful meeting with the President of Ukraine, we decided to fully resume production of cigarettes at the Kremenchuk factory. From Monday, November 11, the JTI Ukraine factory will resume production at all lines,” Director Corporate Affairs at JT International Ukraine Gintautas Dirgela told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
As reported, British American Tobacco Ukraine after a meeting with Zelensky and ministers on November 7 has announced the resumption of production at the B.A.T.-Pryluky plant (Chernihiv region), starting from November 8, 2019.
“We heard words of support and assurances about an early solution to the problem that has damaged our industry and the country’s economy as a whole. Therefore, despite some uncertainty about the fate of bill No. 1049, but relying on the president’s guarantees, we plan to gradually restore production in Pryluky, starting as early as November 8, 2019,” the company said in the statement.
British American Tobacco Ukraine on October 11, 2019 stopped production at B.A.T.-Pryluky plant. The company explained its decision by the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of bill No. 1049 with the norm on the state regulation of the trade margin on cigarettes. Then the company turned to the State Fiscal Service to withdraw 25 million excise stamps and return UAH 505 million paid for them.
JTI Ukraine, one of the largest tobacco companies in Ukraine, on October 22 said that it refused to pay for 16 million excise labels worth UAH 350 million in connection with the reduction of production over the adoption of bill No. 1049 containing a requirement of regulating the cigarette markup. The company cut production by 73% compared with its plans in the second half of October.
Earlier Philip Morris Ukraine, British American Tobacco, JTI and Imperial Tobacco in Ukraine are mulling the possibility of decreasing production and later closing the tobacco factories on the territory of Ukraine over the adoption of the legislative requirement on the government regulation of markup on their goods by the Verkhovna Rada.
Bill No. 1049, passed at second reading, introducing a single account for paying taxes and duties, the single social security contribution, sets a fixed markup for wholesale and retail traders of tobacco products at 7% and 13% of the maximum retail price per package.
