The MP stated that the Economic Security Bureau should be tackling the shadow economy, rather than posting on Facebook
The MP made this statement in an interview with the publication “Ukrainian News”.
According to the Chair of the Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies should pay less attention to social media and stop protecting the illegal tobacco trade, and instead focus on their core task of restoring order.
“Recovery must begin now with the decisions necessary so that, firstly, we attract investment, and secondly, we create a real, attractive business climate here to ensure that money flows in. It is the very same customs, the very same tax authorities, the very same Economic Security Bureau, which should not be posting on Facebook but fighting the ‘shadow economy’,” the MP noted.
According to Danylo Getmantsev, the Economic Security Bureau is currently attempting to create a parallel reality by disseminating press releases via Telegram channels with millions of subscribers, whilst illegal schemes continue to operate.
“We see raids on the ‘Yabko’ network, we see raids on ‘MarketOpti’. And it’s all very high-profile, with this news being pushed out across Telegram channels with millions of subscribers. I don’t know where they get the money for this. It’s a very interesting thing. These channels don’t charge for advertising via cashless payments. And I don’t know at all whether there is such an expenditure item in the ESBU budget – ‘for advertising its own investigations’. That would be interesting. So, we see these announcements, then we go to these companies’ premises and it turns out that they are operating just as they did before. For the state, the consequences are not very different – whether the person is incompetent or whether the person is stealing from this. In both cases, the state does not receive taxes,” explained Getmantsev, adding that the parliamentary committee he heads plans to look into these issues in the near future.
He also stressed that such helplessness and incompetence on the part of the Economic Security Bureau has led to Ukraine’s foreign partners demanding an increase in the tax burden on sole traders.
Danylo Getmantsev is convinced that the Economic Security Bureau’s inability to tackle the shadow economy is a consequence of a lack of competence.
“I attribute the failure to resolve problematic issues regarding the cessation of obvious crimes to a lack of competence. Unfortunately, instead of acquiring, refining and developing these competencies, the revamped Economic Security Bureau has gone down the path of creating a parallel reality. It’s a sort of ‘Misha Fedorov’ style – when you’re actually doing nothing, but in presentations and reports, you claim to be an absolute winner. And this is a very flawed practice,” the MP concluded.
As previously reported by ThePublic, against the backdrop of the growing illegal vape market, the ESBU, under the leadership of Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi, has increased spending on overseas business trips.
