Danylo Hetmantsev, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, called for strict punishment of participants in schemes to import «gray» electronics into Ukraine, due to which the state loses UAH 20 billion, including UAH 10 billion on Apple gadgets, every year.
Danylo Hetmantsev, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, called for strict punishment of participants in schemes to import «gray» electronics into Ukraine, due to which the state loses UAH 20 billion, including UAH 10 billion on Apple gadgets, every year.
He spoke about this in an interview with «News.Live».
«This is very, very large money, which is currently being stolen by really large organized crime groups. This is a serious criminal offense. They are stealing from the budget and the army, they are stealing because all this money goes to the army,» said Hetmantsev.
According to him, due to non-payment of taxes on the sale of Apple gadgets, the state loses 10 billion, and 20 billion from the sale of electronics in general. The People’s Deputy said that the equipment is smuggled through schemes involving customs officers and law enforcement officers. Then, «through individual entrepreneurs, these goods are sold in the best places» — the largest shopping centers in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, claims Danylo Getmantsev.
«In general, I would punish such actions very harshly. This is the Yabko network, this is the Yabluko network. I think that many of our TV viewers see and understand what this is about and who has the most questions. Huge sales volumes of new stores, but in fact, if you look at the documents, there are no such sales at all,» the head of the financial committee indicated.
According to Hetmantsev, law enforcement officers need to «work through» this situation, and not try to «agree on something or somehow resolve it, but specifically stop this endlessness.»
Recall that last fall, COMFY Igor Khyzhnyak published a post on Facebook in which he said that he was able to purchase an iPhone 16 in Ukraine before the start of official sales. According to him, «not a single penny» was paid to the state budget for these gadgets.
Later, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, said that as part of the fight against the shadow electronics market, 170 actual inspections of stores that sold Apple products were currently being conducted. Among them were Yabko, Yabluka, and Techno Yizhak.
Yabko reported that after inspections, they reported on the proper payment of taxes — 257 million UAH for the last 9 months. The company assures that all its imports are carried out legally, with payment of the full tax burden. Some of the equipment is purchased from Ukrainian suppliers, the rest is imported directly, with customs clearance and documentation in accordance with the law.
Last week, employees of the Bureau of Economic Security conducted searches at the warehouses of the Techno Hedgehog chain of stores and seized illegally imported Apple equipment.
«This was the first time we encountered searches. It was unexpected. We admit, we were afraid of something like this, because news about pressure on business constantly fuels this fear,» the press service of Techno Yizhak reported, noting that searches were also conducted in the company’s offices and the apartment of its founder, Oleksiy Huly.
