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Police, prosecutors, and security operatives are said to be involved in corruption schemes at customs.
Ukraine's annual losses caused by flourishing corruption at customs amount to more than EUR 4 billion.
The figures come from an investigative report published by Süddeutsche Zeitung August 6, DW wrote.
It is noted that the sum is more than one-tenth of the state budget's revenue and twice as much as Ukraine seeks to get in loans from the IMF, EU and World Bank in 2018.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, analyzing customs clearance documents and transport invoices, describes fraud schemes applied in Ukraine by perpetrators seeking to avoid custom duties.
Read alsoUkraine's fiscal service boasts US$112 mln recovered in counter-smuggling effort
One of the schemes involves altering in the process of customs clearance the markings on goods imported into Ukraine. For example, more umbrellas "turn into" much cheaper brushes or handmirrors. The state is missing thousands of euros on every single batch imported under the corrupt scheme.
According to the publication, Ukrainian police, prosecutors, and security operatives are involved in the fraud. To carry out illegal transactions, new firms are founded, controlled by the entourage of customs agents, prosecutors, and police.
It is noted that according to the poll by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in 2018 73% of Ukrainian companies faced corruption and bribery, that's compared to 56% of respondents in 2016. At the same time, globally, the figure is on average 25%.
Read alsoSmuggling would have been impossible without involvement of law enforcers - Groysman
One third of the companies surveyed in Ukraine said that in the last two years they heard offers to give bribes. In general, almost half of respondents believe that they dealt with economic crimes – that's 5% more than two years ago.
According to PwC, illegal seizure of assets (62% in 2016, 46% in 2018) and fraud in the procurement sector (25% and 33%) remain the most common of such crimes in Ukraine, along with corruption and bribes.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in July, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said receipts of the state budget from customs clearance of goods at the Odesa customs, after the anti-smuggling measures were strengthened there, doubled for the period June 20-26.