Representatives of the "Ukrtiutiun" Association met with the leadership of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine. During the meeting, the results of combating the shadow market of excise goods, improvement of the legislation regulating the circulation of tobacco products, as well as directions of cooperation between the Bureau and legal manufacturers were discussed.

During the meeting, the acting Director of the ESBU Andrii Pashchuk presented the results of the Bureau's work in this direction. According to his information, since September 14 last year, ESBU detectives seized almost 160 million pieces of tobacco products, National Police officers - more than 37 million pieces, and State Border Service - 36 million pieces.

The participants also discussed the legislative proposals that were sent from the ESBU to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In particular, it is about the introduction of registers of tobacco producers and processors, the approval of the norm of total losses and waste of fermented tobacco raw materials at the level of 5% of the total volume, and the development of an algorithm for blocking payments during the purchase or sale of illegal excise goods. According to Pashchuk, such discussions are necessary to understand the position of legal business and build a constructive dialogue, in particular in the context of legislative changes.

The "Ukrtiutiun" association generally supports the mentioned proposals of the Economic Security Bureau and believes that their implementation can have a positive effect on the reduction of the shadow segment.

"We are grateful to ESBU for its work, the results of which we observe on the market. It is very nice that they conduct an open dialogue with us, and involve us in the discussion of legislative proposals. For their part, they are ready to provide any assistance to law enforcement officers that is not prohibited by law, the shadow market is a joint problem of the state and legal business. It is possible to solve it only by joining forces", said the General Director of the Association Nataliia Fesiun.