“Black Grain” Exports Might Cause $ 135 Million Losses from Ukrainian Budget

“The Grain Corridor” has been used by bogus traders to export so-called “black grain” which was illegally harvested from state land, stolen or bought for cash, said Yaroslav Zheleznyak of the opposition Holos (Voice) faction and head of a temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on economic security on the 5^th of April in his telegram channel.

As a result, the Ukrainian state budget has not received the taxes due from export of the grain and the hard currency revenues the country would have expected.

In September 2022, the State Tax Service, the Economic Security Bureau and the State Customs Service of Ukraine signed a joint Protocol to identify suspicious companies and submit them for thorough examination. However, the Zheleznyak commission’s preliminary report concluded that these governmental bodies had failed to implement the protocol properly.

It is further alleged that bribes paid to public officials were as much as 1% of the grain’s export value and losses to the Ukrainian state budget could be as much as 5 billion hryvnias (or $ 135 million). “Black grain” transactions are connected with the loss of revenues from illegal gambling business from Ukraine. Zheleznyak further reported.

The commission recommended considering dismissal of a number of public officials in the Odesa offices of the State Customs and Economic Security Bureau.