Is it possible to stop the 30 billion cash cigarette market?
More than a month has passed since the BEB offensive against illegal cigarette manufacturers, when they simultaneously blocked all the TOP 5 factories (Lviv, Odessa, Kyiv, Goshcha, Ternopil.).
This time is quite a decent period to assess the effectiveness of these measures.
Currently, all factories are blocked and are unable to produce any products.
Not just fakes, but even completely white cigarettes that they produced as a cover.
The position of the higher powers is something like this: “You are so annoying to everyone that the topic of illegal cigarettes is not just under the control of the OP, but already in the US State Department, therefore, you will not work either conceptually or officially. All."
And while the factories were idle, the market really sank.
Warehouses are empty, and the supply of illegal retail chains is running low.
The market says that in a couple of weeks, illegal cigarettes will completely disappear from sale.
If this happens, then we will see a vivid example of the correct approach to breaking schemes.
Do not drive layouts, and persuade local cops not to take bribes from illegal kiosks, but to eradicate the root cause - production.
And, unlike sales points, there are not thousands, but only five, and overcoming them, as we see, is more of a political issue.
But the problem of schemes in the tobacco market does not end there, but only moves to a more complex level.
At the last meeting of the financial committee, Getmantsev raged that a large number of tobacco chains do not issue fiscal receipts, thereby evading taxes and engaging in financial schemes.
At first glance, it sounds strange, because what is the point of a kiosk not punching a receipt if all taxes are paid at the stage of cigarette production by the factory. 20% VAT, excise tax, and even a local excise tax of 5%.
But in fact, there is a point in not hitting the check.
The sale of cigarettes by a kiosk without issuing a receipt occurs during cash sales, and is de facto the stage of collecting cash for conversion centers.
This cash, which the kiosks collect from customers, flows in streams along the chain to the monopolist in the sale of cigarettes, Tedis Ukraine.
Today it is true that it is called “DL SOLUTION”, but the name does not change anything, because no matter what you call it, even “Megapolis”, even “Tedis”, even “DL SOLUTION” - it is still the same unchanged tobacco monopolist of Boris Kaufman on which all tobacco manufacturers are tied to, and to whom they sell all their produced cigarettes.
At the same time, factories do not play schemes, they sell their goods strictly in cashless form, with payment of all taxes, and Kaufman also officially buys them.
But then miracles begin. Tedis (DL SOLUTION), begins to separate goods and documents.
According to market players, Kaufman’s monopoly sells up to 50% of all cigarettes to small intermediaries and networks for cash, while the documents that remain from these cigarettes are sent to controlled companies that accumulate virtual volumes of cigarettes in their warehouses.
Previously, they were used for rolling, but now it’s difficult, so cigarettes are virtually piling up. The tax office can easily identify these companies by checking Kaufman's counterparties with large balances, which they will not see in reality.
But for some reason the tax office doesn’t do this.
Cash collected for cash sales is also sold, because cash is the same product. Cash costs +2.5% of the amount.
With approximate annual sales of cigarettes to Tedis “DL SOLUTION” at 50-60 billion UAH, 50% of which goes for cash, which they sell for 2.5%, the net margin on this alone can be 500-750 million UAH.
Beautiful?
The cash supply of 30 billion UAH is accumulated in small streams from kiosks that simply do not give you a receipt.
And this money fuels other schemes. And this is exactly what Getmantsev was talking about.
But just like with illegal cigarette manufacturers, everyone knows very well the networks that deal with this tobacco conversion.
And Getmantsev raised the right question, but will they allow him to overcome this problem?
I think no.
After all, as long as you need a dirty cache, the scheme will work, and we will write about it.
Briefly speaking. Request a fiscal receipt.
