The Ukrainian Finance Ministry is recording a sharp increase in the number of attempts to reimburse fictitious value added tax (VAT), Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has said.

"It looks like a coordinated action against the interests of the state... I tasked the acting head of the State Fiscal Service with conducting an investigation where there is a concentration of such offenses, primarily in Kyiv. At the time of the investigation, the leadership of the Kyiv office of the State Fiscal Service will be suspended from performing its duties so as to check everything and prevent influence on this process," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

Danyliuk noted that two-thirds of fictitious VAT was passing through Kyiv.

He also added that he had instructed acting Head of the State Fiscal Service (SFS) Myroslav Prodan to draw up a mechanism for rotating the heads of regional SFS offices in order to break off possible corruption ties in the regions.

"This mechanism is used in many countries," he said.