Fragolino wine drinks produced in Ukraine do not correspond to declared content, economic codes – Ukrspozhyv-kontrol
KYIV. Dec 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Fragolino wine drinks produced by the Odesavynprom winery (Odesa) do not correspond to the declared content and codes of the Ukrainian Classification of Goods of Foreign Economic Activity, due to this, these products are sold in stores at half the price of the minimum retail price, and the state budget receives less funds from the payment of excise tax from them.
This was announced by Head of the Ukrspozhyv-kontrol Ukrainian public union Maksym Honchar at a press conference held at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
"We sent a request to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which assigns the economic activity codes, and received an answer that the Fragolino wine drinks produced by Odesavynprom have the code 2206 00 310 0 (cider and perry). If they are assigned this code, they pay to the budget UAH 1.06 from each bottle, not UAH 8.02, as for the code 'other fermented drinks,'" Honchar said.
In turn, analyst of alcohol production Olesia Lekhova said during a press conference that according to the results of isotope examination of sparkling drinks of the Fragolino variety, carried out in Italy and France, they contain alcohol obtained by fermentation of beet sugar, which does not correspond to the content indicated on the drink label.
Honchar also added that, according to Ukrainian legislation, cider and perry cannot contain the wine material that is present in the Fragolino drink.
"There is a confirmation from the Institute of Forensic Expertise that this product belongs to the economic activity category 'other fermented drinks.' We see that the state budget loses tens of millions of hryvnias annually from the sale of such drinks, (and the labels on these drinks) mislead the consumer, because they write one thing (on the label), and (drinks) are another product," the head of Ukrspozhyv-kontrol said.
In addition, the minimum retail price of this alcoholic drink under the economic activity code "other fermented drinks" is UAH 109 per bottle, and it is sold in retail chains for UAH 55-65.
"We have a discrepancy between the results of the examination and the economic activity code. On this fact, we will contact the State Fiscal Service with this information and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine due to the content of wine material in the product, which, according to the economic activity code 'cider and perry,' should not be there at all," the head of the union said.
As reported, Kaplor 7 LLC (Odesa) in September 2021 privatized the state winery Odesavynprom for UAH 234.9 million.
PrJSC Odesavynprom is engaged in production of cognacs, still and sparkling wines under the brands French Boulevard and Guliev Wines, and also provides its facilities for bottling Crimean brands.