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Almost US$15 million is additionally channeled every day to the budget thanks to anti-smuggling measures at Ukraine's customs.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman says the fight against smuggling has led to a 31.3% increase to almost UAH 1.76 billion (US$62.3 million) in daily payments by the customs to the national budget.
Read alsoUkraine's fiscal service boasts US$112 mln recovered in counter-smuggling effort
"Before we started the fight against smuggling, our national budget received UAH 1.338 billion, or US$47.41 million, a day. Now the figure has risen to UAH 1.757 billion, or US$62.26 million. So, over UAH 400 million, or US$14.85 million, is additionally channeled to the budget every day due to the tougher counter-smuggling efforts," he said at a government meeting on Wednesday, October 24.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet on June 20 approved a plan to combat smuggling, which provides for the coordination of all law enforcement agencies and the State Fiscal Service. In particular, the government granted the right to officers of the National Police to operate at customs checkpoints around the clock to reveal violations.
The Ukrainian prime minister named the most popular schemes of smuggling in Ukraine: cargo customs processing of trucks as empty, although they are filled with expensive goods; crossing the border by a large group of people (so-called "jackets"), who in parts carry a lot of goods as hand luggage; substitution of documents for goods, making them cheaper than their actual value; the use of the so-called "sixth" method of calculating customs value, which is the least specific and allows to hide "gray" imports; involvement of offshore companies when, through the simulation of violations and based on the further court decision, they allegedly return the goods, although in fact they import them; and import of low-quality fuel under the guise of "Euro-4."
In addition, Groysman reported on an outrageous case of "black" imports of fuel, when a full tanker enters neutral waters, while small ships from the Ukrainian shore approach and unload it. When the tanker is almost empty, it passes customs clearance.
The government expects that about UAH 100 billion ($3.54 billion) may be transferred to the national budget if the fight against smuggling succeeds.