Brioni for UAH 36 and Dolce & Gabbana for UAH 184: what the temporary investigative commission on cargo uncovered while government searched for contraband in parcels worth up to €150
The Verkhovna Rada passed the bill on VAT on parcels in its first reading amid intensified enemy strikes on businesses. The second reading will apparently take place against the backdrop of a campaign of strikes on energy infrastructure that is already underway. While lawmakers prepare to vote on the bill, which the Cabinet of Ministers estimates will generate around UAH 10 billion a year, the parliamentary temporary investigative commission on economic security is discussing at its meetings the problem of dozens of cargo companies openly importing goods into Ukraine while paying virtually no taxes.
BusinessCensor explains what the Temporary Investigation Commission has uncovered about parcel fraud, what the Prime Minister says about schemes involving parcels, what customs statistics show, and the circumstances in which lawmakers will have to vote for a second time.
97 websites, billboards, everything "off the books": what the Temporary Investigation Commission is hearing about cargo companies
On October 1, the Verkhovna Rada’s temporary investigative commission on economic security, chaired by Yaroslav Zhelezniak, examined the import and sale of goods through cargo companies. Opening the meeting, Zhelezniak explained why the commission had taken up the issue:
"They openly advertise their services, including directly on billboards, especially in the Odesa region. Everyone knows about this problem," he said.
Zhelezniak pointed out that this is happening at a time when "we, as members of parliament, are supposed to abolish tax exemptions for parcels", which "looks rather unfair to many people."
The commission found 97 websites belonging to cargo companies that openly advertise importing goods "off the books". They label packages with their own branding, advertise their services on billboards, and operate on Instagram.
At the meeting, the lawmaker showed an exchange with the company "Egor Cargo": after sending a price list, the company told the customer that there would be no customs clearance documents and that "everything is off the books."
After the commission meeting, Zhelezniak reported on Telegram that the customs service had counted only 25 "active" companies among the 668 operating under the Cargo label. The Bureau of Economic Security prepared 24 analytical reports identifying more than UAH 1 billion in potential budget losses. The tax service assessed an additional UAH 8.5 million in taxes and reduced the negative VAT balance by UAH 16.8 million.
Business representative Andrii Antoniuk told the meeting that cargo companies offer entrepreneurs two options:
- Import goods at an understated value, at $5–6 per kilogram, with minimal documentation; the risk of an inspection, additional tax assessments, or confiscation remains.
- Import goods without documents under the guise of humanitarian aid: "a little longer, a little more expensive, but guaranteed to be quiet and trouble-free." According to him, cargo companies describe this as the best option.
According to Antoniuk, truckloads of French wine, cheese, and sausages are entering Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian aid. This comes amid persistent complaints from domestic cheesemakers about a flood of imports that are, in effect, aggressively pushing Ukrainian products off store shelves.
The meeting also highlighted discrepancies in customs clearance costs for identical goods: clearing one kilogram of fabric cost $2.80 at Zaporizhzhia Customs and $0.006 at Sumy Customs. In one example presented, Brioni belts were imported at a value of UAH 36 each and sold for UAH 23,360. Dolce & Gabbana women’s trousers were declared at UAH 184 and sold for UAH 114,567.
The meeting also cited a September 17 post by Oleksandr Sokolovskyi that effectively revealed how cargo companies operate. BusinessCensor previously covered this; more details are available here.
Danylo Hetmantsev, chair of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, told the meeting that the exact amount lost to smuggling is unknown, but he estimates it at around UAH 300 billion a year. Still, it is easier to tax purchases on platforms such as AliExpress or Temu than to tackle smuggling.
An extra UAH 10 billion a year? What the Rada approved in the parcel bill on September 16
On September 16, the Verkhovna Rada passed bill No. 16051-1 in its first reading, introducing 20% VAT on parcels worth up to €150: 273 lawmakers voted in favour. The Ministry of Finance expects the parcel tax to generate around UAH 10 billion in additional revenue each year.
On September 27, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi backed the bill in an interview with TSN. According to him, "80% of these parcels involved splitting consignments into small batches" to evade taxes.
"I do want to comment separately on parcels: I believe this is absolutely the right decision, because 80% of these parcels involved splitting consignments into small batches so that unscrupulous operators could avoid tax liabilities. And that is unacceptable," he said.
Moreover, he explained, unchecked imports of goods in parcels put Ukrainian manufacturers, particularly those in light industry, at a disadvantage: they operate under shelling, pay for expensive electricity and diesel generators, and pay VAT. According to the prime minister, the second reading will take place soon.
His remarks, however, leave one question unanswered: why split shipments into small batches if it is easier to import a truckload under the guise of humanitarian aid, a long-known fact confirmed by the Temporary Investigation Commission? The issue is not the exemption itself, but the attempt to plug the budget gap at the expense of Ukrainians who already bear the burden of war every day, while leaving systemic problems unresolved. Hetmantsev previously said that shadow businesses would cost Ukraine UAH 1 trillion this year. How many drones would that buy?..
There are also corruption cases in which the amounts involved in the most high-profile episodes add up to more than UAH 25 billion, or two and a half times the expected revenue from taxing parcels. Below is a brief selection of cases to illustrate the scale. Admittedly, the amounts cited in criminal proceedings are figures provided by investigators or prosecutors, and not all of these cases have resulted in a final verdict. Losses, laundered funds, bribes, and unjustified assets should not automatically be lumped together into a single category of "stolen funds." Still, the figures speak for themselves:
| Case | Amount | What does it mean |
| Ukrnafta | >UAH 13.8 billion | misappropriation of property and funds |
| Ministry of Defence – fuel and VAT | >UAH 2.4 billion | losses to the state |
| Novoiavorivsk and Novyi Rozdil CHP plants | >UAH 2.1 billion | misappropriation of natural gas |
| Land in the Kyiv region, 1,200+ hectares | >UAH 1.8 billion | losses/value of the land |
| Hrynkevych / clothing for the Ministry of Defence | >UAH 934 million | losses to the Ministry of Defence |
| "Golden eggs" / food supplies for the Armed Forces of Ukraine | > UAH 733 million | amount involved in the food procurement case |
| State Property Fund of Ukraine | >UAH 700 million | losses; separately, laundering of assets worth UAH 10+ billion |
| Former official of the Office of the Prosecutor General | >UAH 641 million | write-off of tax liabilities |
| ARMA/seized assets | nearly UAH 500 million | fraud involving seized assets |
| Customs scheme | >UAH 475 million | losses caused by reducing customs payments |
| Chernivtsi Customs | nearly UAH 290 million | losses to the state |
| "DZVIN" system | UAH 246 million | embezzlement of funds |
| Ukrgasbank | >UAH 206 million | Illegal diversion of bank funds |
| Cash-out centre/tax service | UAH 147 million | documented losses to the budget |
| Ukrzaliznytsia/cables | >UAH 140 million | losses incurred by Ukrzaliznytsia |
| Ukrzaliznytsia/transformers | nearly UAH 95 million | losses to Ukrzaliznytsia |
| Drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine | UAH 47 million | funds for procuring drones and equipment |
So when international partners call for bringing economic activity out of the shadows, which shadows do they mean? The question is rhetorical.
And are parcels really used to split commercial shipments into small batches, as the prime minister says? MP Nina Yuzhanina previously asked the customs service for a breakdown of parcels received in 2025. According to her figures, 75 million parcels worth up to €150 entered Ukraine last year. Of these, 83% were worth up to €50. In other words, these were small household electronics, batteries, flashlights, and other items Ukrainians need during prolonged power outages.
"Tell me, where is the splitting of commercial shipments here? What threshold applies to these goods, and which specific category do they fall into?" she said in a conversation with BusinessCensor before the vote.
So, on the one hand, we have truckloads of imported delicacies entering Ukraine unhindered under the guise of humanitarian aid; on the other, flashlights and power banks to get through yet another "hardest winter in history." Yet, for some reason, it is the flashlights they have chosen to tax.
Still, the issue is not even taxes. As investigative journalist Yevhen Plinskyi previously reported, there is a group called "Chat 18," whose members are CEOs and owners of non-food retailers. This is where they discuss both how to promote the importance of introducing VAT on parcels in the media and their strategic goals. One of the key points, according to Plinskyi, is that members of "Chat 18" effectively acknowledge that no one expects any significant tax revenue gains for the budget. The main goal is to make delivery and customs clearance of parcels from China cumbersome and slow for Ukrainians, so that lower prices no longer outweigh the convenience of buying locally.
"The idea behind ‘Chat 18’ is that Ukrainian consumers should conclude for themselves that it is easier to buy the same product on a Ukrainian marketplace at a slightly higher price than to wait for it to arrive from China," Plinskyi explained.
Power outage schedules, power banks, cargo companies on billboards: what the Rada faces ahead of the second reading
On September 30, Russia expanded its strikes on energy infrastructure, hitting combined heat and power plants, thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants, and three power transmission lines. According to DTEK, emergency power cuts were imposed in Kyiv on Ukrenergo’s instructions, while scheduled outages were introduced in the capital and the surrounding region in the evening, and electric public transport in two districts and metro services were suspended.
The second reading therefore comes at a time when the measure is politically unpopular: while Ukrainians order LED flashlights from foreign marketplaces, lawmakers will decide how much tax they will have to pay on them.
The cargo companies discussed by the commission on October 1 add to this political pressure: they advertise openly, including on billboards, while the committee, according to Hetmantsev, has been publicly addressing the issue for almost a year. Paradoxically, businesses expect the vote on parcels to make the smuggling problem worse. After all, the customs service will have more work to do:
"Customs operations will collapse as the workload increases dozens or perhaps even hundreds of times over, disrupting logistics. This will affect not just postal operators but all carriers, which in turn will fuel an increase in smuggling," Nova Poshta CEO Volodymyr Popereshniuk said on the day of the bill’s first-reading vote.
In other words, the argument that cheap parcels are primarily a means of splitting imports into smaller consignments is even less convincing in light of the latest news. This is apparently why Zhelezniak, opening the Temporary Investigation Commission meeting, said that lawmakers having to vote on parcels while cargo businesses operate "looks rather unfair to many people." We would go so far as to call it cynical.
