Ukraine's Supreme Court by its decisions dated April 7 and April 18, 2017 has suspended the execution of a ruling of a lower instance court that obliged the State Fiscal Service to take 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas produced in 2006 as a tax lien of public joint-stock company Ukrnafta, Head of the Large Taxpayers Office of the State Fiscal Service Yevhen Bambizov has told reporters.

"Rulings of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated April 7 and April 18 satisfied the petitions of the Large Taxpayers Office and public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz to suspend the execution of the court rulings obliging to take natural gas of Ukrnafta extracted in 2006," he said.

Bambizov said that Ukrnafta managed to challenge in court all of the orders issued by the State Fiscal Service to seize other assets of the company, apart from gas (worth UAH 11.2 billion).

He said that Ukrnafta's tax debt today is UAH 12.9 billion, including UAH 11 billion for royalties, UAH 1.5billion for profit tax and UAH 400 million for VAT.

As reported, Ukrnafta is trying to collect the above-mentioned 2 bcm of gas from Ukrtransgaz and offers it as tax lien.