After high-profile beb searches, the shadow cigarette market halved, and the Tax Service gained full control over manufacturers

According to the research company Kantar Ukraine, after the high - profile searches of BEB in the spring of this year, the share of the shadow tobacco market decreased by 11.1%-from 25.7% at the end of last year to 14.6% in July 2024. At the same time, in October, revenues through RRO in the tobacco industry increased by UAH 3 billion compared to January, writes UNN.

Details

In addition, according to the materials of BEB, three well-known cigarette manufacturers were deprived of their licenses. In total, since the beginning of the year, detectives of the Bureau of economic security have opened 309 criminal proceedings on the facts of illegal trafficking in tobacco products, 231 cases have been sent to court, and 137 sentences have been passed.

As a result of the searches, the bureau's detectives seized almost 7.8 million packs of cigarettes, more than 300 thousand kilograms of tobacco and 16 lines for the production of tobacco products. The estimated value of the seized goods is UAH 1 billion.

5 of the seized lines belonged to enterprises that had the appropriate license, but also produced cigarettes with or without fake excise tax stamps. 

At the same time, in accordance with the adopted law "on state regulation of the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic distillates, bioethanol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, tobacco raw materials, liquids used in electronic cigarettes and fuel", the state tax service received full control over cigarette manufacturers. 

Starting from October 1, the tax authorities will already have round-the-clock access to production facilities and video surveillance cameras that should be installed on them. In addition, they will control the registration of all factory equipment, the processes of receiving and processing tobacco, its storage and transportation, as well as the use of excise stamps and the payment of tax. 

Therefore, the release of unaccounted cigarettes becomes impossible without the "assistance" of tax employees, as it happened at Vodka factories, where, despite the establishment of tax posts, cases of alcohol release under the so - called "Form 2" were previously recorded-out of account and for cash.

It will be possible to talk about the results of the efficiency of the state tax service in tobacco factories only after the publication of the next study of the shadow market share from Kantar Ukraine.