The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Hetmantsev sees a significant potential of additional revenues to the state budget of Ukraine in case of a significant strengthening of the fight against the shadow market of excisable goods, especially tobacco products.
“Of all the excisable industries, we see the greatest potential in the detenization of the tobacco industry. This is about 15-17 billion UAH,” he said in an interview on Radio NV.
According to him, there is also great potential in the fuel market.
“As for vodka, the potential for detenalization is less, because the total amount of excise tax from alcoholic beverages is about 10 times lower than that of tobacco. Although there is certainly a certain reserve of detenalization for alcoholic beverages,” said Getmantsev.
The head of the Committee pointed out that the shadowing and tax evasion in the tobacco market takes place not at the level of its leaders but at the level of smaller companies and illegal manufacturers.
He reminded that the tobacco industry consists primarily of four major international manufacturers that are not suspected of tax evasion, because if it happens, the risks of such evasion for them will be incommensurate with the benefits.
“And we see, actually, by their tax behavior, that it is credible. These are market leaders, these are white companies, these are companies that pay taxes in full,” stated Getmantsev.
At the same time, according to him, some smaller Ukrainian tobacco companies are suspicious.
“There are some legal manufacturers that raise doubts about their compliance with taxation rules. In particular, there is a tobacco factory in the western Ukraine, where recently the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) conducted searches and found excisable goods without excise stamps for 80 million UAH”, – said the head of the Committee.
He added that the market also has some small legal production, but there is still a large part of the market – illegal producers, even without a license. “For example, Odessa customs recently detained and confiscated a cigarette production line, which they tried to bring into Ukraine illegally under the guise of soap production line,” – gave an example Getmantsev.
At the same time, the head of the specialized parliamentary committee stressed the inadmissibility of tax evasion during the war.
Participants of the tobacco market initiate the launch of an information campaign for representatives of retail distribution to combat illegal tobacco products, which share on the Ukrainian market in May 2021 increased to 15.9%, with 67% of sales of such products accounted for by legal trade channels.
The details of the information campaign initiated by the Ukrtyutyun Association, international corporations with capacities for the production of tobacco products in Ukraine, Ukrainian cigarette manufacturers, a number of their distributors and the Association of Ukrainian Cities were announced by Director of Ukrtyutyun Natalia Fesiun at a press conference held on November 5.
During the conference, she cited data from the Kantar Ukraine research institute, according to which, in January-May 2021, the volume of illegally sold cigarettes amounted to 7.21 billion pieces, which led to a shortfall in the state budget of UAH 13.2 billion in taxes.
To combat the growth of the illegal cigarette market in Ukraine, an information campaign was initiated for the owners and employees of retail stores to reduce their involvement in the distribution of illegal tobacco products.
During the information campaign, its participants plan to distribute more than 120,000 information leaflets with information on legal responsibility for the storage and sale of illegal cigarettes and its negative impact of illegal products on the Ukrainian cigarette market.
Fesiun said that the initiators of the campaign expect a decrease in the level of sales of illegal tobacco products through legal sales channels as early as 2022.
