The expected tax increase in the near future to "close the budget hole of UAH 500 billion" was not understood at the level of the US special representative for the economic recovery of Ukraine, Penny Pritzker. Instead of increasing the tax burden on business, Pritzker recommended "focusing on customs reform and the fight against gray markets."
This is reported by the editors of the 360UA NEWS
At the same time, in addition to the official increase in taxes, the illegal practice of extortion from large enterprises continues, by the protégé of Danylo Hetmantsev acting Yevgeny Sokur, Deputy Head of the Tax Service. Taking advantage of his official position, Yevgeny Sokur stops the work of enterprises until he receives "concessions" .
Multimillionaire Sokur was appointed to head the tax office in May 2022, but there is still no information about him or photos the official website Entrepreneurs claim that Sokur, under the guise of "digitalization" of the tax office, manually stops the work of enterprises until the entrepreneurs give concessions. During his work, they came to the business for retreats already for the second time, and for some even for the third time. And those who don't pay are stopped.
According to this scheme, in 2023, Sokur stopped Chervonoslobidsky Distillery LLC - canceled the license, objecting to the number of cameras, which is not regulated anywhere. As a result, the company resumed work through the court, but during the court proceedings and downtime, the state budget did not receive UAH 500 million in excise tax. Earlier, according to a similar scheme, Yevhen Sokur canceled the license of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery.
In the spring of 2024, it became known that the SBI was investigating the case of alleged obstruction of the supply of fuel to the army by Yevhen Sokur, acting deputy head of the DPS. As it turned out , on October 26, 2022, Sokur adopted an order to cancel the license of PJSC "Ukrtatnafta" for the production of fuel. Such actions of his probably caused serious consequences for the company, as well as for the state in the form of the impossibility of fulfilling the mobilization tasks of the Ministry of Defense for the production and supply of petroleum products for the needs of defense and defense capability of the state.
In this way, systemic pressure is created on Ukrainian business by individual representatives of the DPS, which has already become the subject of an investigation by law enforcement officers.
According to our sources in the environment of lobbying companies specializing in work with Ukraine in the USA, the topic of corruption, "gray markets" and "extortions from business" recently began to worry our main strategic partners, in the context of the stress resistance of the Ukrainian economy, taking into account the "instability of subsidy politicians in the future". It is also likely that Richard Verma, who is to replace Mrs. Pritzker as the US special representative for the economic recovery of Ukraine in September, will continue her policy and defend large taxpayers.
