The State Fiscal Service (SFS) of Ukraine is raiding in NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy as part of a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings over possible evasion of paying VAT in the amount of UAH 2.7 billion by the company's officials.

According to a report on the SFS Facebook page, this is about the unfinished procedure for customs clearance of gas purchased from Gazprom (Russia) since October 2015, as a result of which UAH 2.7 billion of VAT did not come to the state budget.

"Enterprises that produce heat energy actually consume gas in the gas transmission system of Ukraine, but NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy does not draw up documents for gas supplies and does not sign the acceptance certificates, arguing that gas is not actually supplied, but a service of balancing of gas in the GTS is provided, as a result of which the operations for the supply of gas are not documented," the SFS said.

The SFS said that it has collected enough evidence that may indicate the fact of tax evasion. "Evidence has been received that officials of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy did not submit a full package of documents to the Energy Customs Service of the SFS, on the basis of which the customs authority of Ukraine could carry out customs clearance of natural gas," the SFS added.

"We are cooperating with the investigating authorities. Now we are clarifying the details," Director for Integrated Communications at Naftogaz Ukrainy Maksym Biliavsky told Interfax-Ukraine.