A law that allows for the elimination of one of the largest corruption schemes in the illegal sale of tobacco has entered into force. The only question is when it will work. And will it work at all?
Since September, the rules for selling cigarettes in Duty Free have changed in Ukraine. In short, from September 1 in Ukraine the production and sale of cigarettes with the designation DF is prohibited, and imported DF cigarettes will be sold in duty-free stores in a quantity of no more than two packs per person per day.
Why is this important? Because sales through duty-free trade were one of the main corruption schemes in Ukraine. According to various estimates, the price of the issue is from 5 billion hryvnia, which the budget did not receive, and the “corruption rent” brought (brings?) 10-12 billion a year to the beneficiaries. It took the Rada almost two years to pass a not very complicated law. For more than two years, everyone has been talking about this scheme, there are even their own “heroes” - customs crossings, where hundreds of packs were “sold” in one hand, but, of course, there are no culprits or suspects.
Now the main question is whether the law signed by the president will work? After all, a number of by-laws need to be adopted, and customs, tax and other security officials need to make certain efforts to make the law work.
Over the past few months, we have all witnessed how the temporary investigative commission of parliament provided the security forces with points of illegal sale of tobacco (geolocation), and in a month no one closed anything. There is a big threat that nothing much will change here either.
