The scandal with reservations from the mobilization of circus and TV channel workers raised the topic in Ukraine about fair criteria for reservations and classifying enterprises as critically important. According to our sources, employees of tobacco monopolists - the international tobacco company Philip Morris International and the distributor of tobacco products "Tedis" of Odessa businessman Boris Kaufman, who control the market in Ukraine - have been reserved from mobilization in Ukraine.
Philip Morris International in Ukraine is officially recognized as an international sponsor of the war - it is included in the corresponding NACP List - after paying income taxes in the amount of over $136 million to the Russian budget.
Despite sponsoring Putin’s military machine, Philip Morris enjoys tax breaks (the ad valorem rate has been reduced from 25 to 12%), and now in the Verkhovna Rada lobbyists PMI and Tedis want to reduce the excise tax on electronic cigarettes by 20%, which will lead to a budget loss of 2025-2028 15 billion UAH and in each subsequent year 5 billion UAH.
The strategic importance of tobacco monopolists, which control 80% of the Ukrainian tobacco market, is now confirmed not only by the soft tax regime, but also by the reservation of employees.
Let us recall that after the scandal with reservations from the mobilization of circus workers, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal instructed the relevant ministries to prepare an “updated, fairer” resolution on reservations, in which “to determine an exhaustive list of critical infrastructure facilities and enterprises.”
