The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has said that the criminal proceedings against Head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov is linked to a lack of legal grounds for granting installments to business entities, which led to losses for the state of about Hr 2 billion.
“In response to statements by some deputies that due to the detention of the fiscal service head the authority will stop providing deferrals on tax liabilities to business, we emphasize that the criminal prosecution of the fiscal service head is not linked to the fact of granting installments to business entities, but to the lack of legal grounds for its application. It is resulted in the damage caused to the state in the amount of about Hr 2 billion, “the press service of NABU said late on Friday.
The bureau said that the investigators have evidence that when deciding to grant royalty payments in installments to three companies controlled by MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko operating under joint activities agreements with state-run company Ukrgazvydobuvannia, the head of the State Fiscal Service deliberately ignored a number of conditions for the application of this tool outlined in the legal documents.
In particular, the decision to allow royalty payments in installments was made backdating, without any valid grounds, and after the royalty payment date for the above-mentioned companies matured. Installments were provided without approval by the Finance Ministry of Ukraine.
“In addition, Nasirov presented unreliable information to Ukrgazvydobuvannia and Ukraine’s State Service for Geology and Deposits that the above-mentioned companies did not have tax debts. He concealed the fact that the operators did not observe the terms of the joint activities agreements in paying the royalty for the use of deposits the budget. This could be a ground for the termination of the contracts between Ukrgazvydobuvannia and the companies involved in the so-called Onyshchenko gas scheme,” NABU said.
