| Tax police reported for last year The Federal Tax Police Service (FSNP) reported yesterday on the results of its activities for the past year. According to statistics, tax police solved almost 24 thousand economic crimes. The damage to the budget system in completed criminal cases alone is estimated at more than 19 billion rubles. Trade workers hid the largest sums from the tax authorities - 32% of the total damage. Next comes the fuel and energy complex (11%), construction (10%), transport and communications (more than 6%), mechanical engineering (about 6%), and the financial and credit sector (4%). In this regard, as the head of the Federal Tax Service Mikhail Fradkov said at a press conference, this year the tax police will conduct targeted operations in certain industries. He named the fuel and energy complex, metallurgical and forestry industries.
In addition, the minister said, criminal cases against a number of vertically integrated companies are currently under investigation. Mr. Fradkov did not declassify them, saying only that the cases were “very significant.” How significant they are can apparently be judged by the fact that these companies have already reimbursed more than two tens of billions of rubles.
Separately, Mr. Fradkov focused on the problem of VAT refunds to exporters. He proposed tightening the tax refund procedure so as not to feed swindlers who export goods only on paper. The minister’s concern is well founded: in more than 50 regions of the country, actual VAT refunds last year significantly exceeded the maximum possible amount calculated by the tax police. In 16 regions this figure was exceeded by more than 2 times. Also, according to the minister, changes in legislation should stop the current practice when criminal cases brought against false exporters “scatter” in the courts due to an insufficient legislative framework. It is known that shell companies are mainly involved in unjustified VAT refund schemes. So, last year more than 115 thousand such structures were identified, registered using false passports. Financial transactions worth 9 billion rubles were stopped, and more than 660 criminal cases were initiated.
Another important problem is criminal processes in the field of bankruptcy of enterprises. As the minister noted, bankruptcy procedures are increasingly being used to redistribute property, evade taxes, and evade responsibility for theft. At least 30% of cases pending in arbitration courts have signs of deliberate or fictitious bankruptcies. Tax police authorities opened more than 370 criminal cases last year regarding violations of the bankruptcy procedure for enterprises, which is 1.8 times more than in 2001. Mikhail VOROBYEV |
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