The head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov, has explained the situation involving the arrest of grain at Ukrainian seaports, the CFTS correspondent reports. "We had a meeting with grain traders yesterday. We have warned the agricultural sector that we will not allow possibilities for abuses during export of grain this year. What are we seeing? As soon as the season began, my colleagues arrested 10,000 tons of grain purchased from a company whose director died six months ago. Quite simply, it is a fictitious company. This product was purchased somewhere for cash. If the product was purchased for cash, then it was stolen. Even if someone grew this product, it was not declared,” Nasirov said.

According to him, the main problem is transfer of foreign currency out of the country. "We have foreign traders buying grain from companies registered in Belize, Seychelles, or Cyprus at best on CCPT terms. We are asking them, ‘Why don’t you buy from Ukrainian producers?’ It is because a Ukrainian producer has created an offshore company, and it is selling grain to it, with the proceeds bypassing Ukraine," the head of the State Fiscal Service explains.

According to Nasirov, three vessels have been arrested in two weeks. "This is not a fight against offshore companies. We are an agency that combats tax evasion in Ukraine. However, we do not want to fight, we want to administer the payment of taxes. It is important to the society and us. In this case (the detention of vessels), it is actually a fictitious enterprise, which is illegal, ‘black,’ and creates a gray economy. It creates a pretext for further manipulations during buying and selling. That is, it does not end with purchase of grain for cash. Later, it will be partial payment for labor in cash, partial payment for crop protection products, smuggling of these funds, etc. a big problem will thus be created. It is very hard to determine where it begins and where it ends, and our task is to fight against all its manifestations. If we do it at the same time, there will be a much greater chance of achieving results. Our task is to ensure that the grain market is 100% transparent and clear," the official concluded.