Ukraine loses US$893 mln in taxes due to shadow fuel market – Accounting Chamber

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in July described one of the popular shadow schemes for importing fuel into Ukraine.

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Ukraine's national budget has fallen short of about UAH 25 billion, or US$893 million, in taxes this year, because of the shadow markets of petrol and diesel fuel.

"The national budget has fallen short of UAH 25 billion from the shadow petrol [market] this year. I'm more than sure that [with this amount] it would have been easier to finance different programs, while it would have been easier for the Finance Ministry to distribute its spending, and the social sphere could have been much more successful," head of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine Valeriy Patsan has said at a meeting of the parliament's budget committee.

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In his words, the members of the Accounting Chamber estimated this amount, using a special formula.

As UNIAN reported, at a Cabinet meeting in July, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman described one of the popular shadow schemes for importing fuel into Ukraine. According to him, tankers with fuel enter the neutral waters, then small vessels approach them to reload the fuel. After this, the commodities get to filling stations in circumvention of customs clearance. The prime minister says it is a "multi-billion" scheme.

UNIAN memo. Ukraine's national budget for 2018 sets revenue at UAH 917.9 billion (US$32.78 billion) and expenditures at UAH 991.7 billion (US$35.42 billion), while the highest deficit is fixed at UAH 80.6 billion (US$2.88 billion), or 2.4% of GDP.

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