The "Eagles" of Kononenko advanced by a yard

The "Eagles" of Kononenko advanced by a yard

«Centrenergo» nullifies tax liabilities of almost 1 billion hryvnias on operations with controversial coal suppliers from the ATO zone

The last state energy generating company in the country – «Centrenergo» – is once again at the center of a scandal. The enterprise drew attention to itself with its course of writing off obligations before the State Budget in the amount of almost 1 billion hryvnias. The first positive result is already there, but the authors of the goal are unlikely to be inspired by its achievement: in the heat of the fight for tax savings, «Centrenergo» revealed its relations with companies that were spotted in connections with the occupiers of part of the Donbas territory.

As journalists found out, on June 21, the Kyiv District Administrative Court decided to satisfy the lawsuit of «Centrenergo» and cancel two tax notifications-decisions of the Office of Large Taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine dated January 16, 2017. These charged «Centrenergo» with almost 980 million hryvnias of additional tax liabilities for income tax, including penalty sanctions amounting to over 215 million hryvnias.

Photo source — Politeka

The fiscal authorities issued these checks to the energy company based on the results of an unscheduled inspection conducted at the central office of the PJSC at the end of last year. It was established that «Centrenergo» did not shy away from participating in operations with dubious contractors, which allowed it to reduce the amount of tax liabilities by hundreds of millions. «Centrenergo» disagreed with this conclusion and challenged it in court, which eventually sided with the plaintiff.

This strategy is very reminiscent of the behavior of «Ukrnafta», which, despite its controlling stake being owned by NJSC «Naftogaz of Ukraine», is de facto managed by the «Privat» group, and over the past year has been quite actively repelling the demands of tax officials precisely with the help of courts. In general, «Centrenergo», which successfully repeats this experience, has a reason to celebrate victory after the capital’s administrative court made the above-mentioned decision. True, not a final one, as the SFS has chances to achieve their goal in the appellate, and, if it comes to that, in the cassation instance.

The conclusions of the court regarding the interactions of «Centrenergo» with its suppliers, which, in fact, unleashed the scandal, seem much more interesting. «The economic relations between the plaintiff («Centrenergo» — ed.) and contractors (LLC «Donbas Coal Administration», LLC «Donbascoal Processing», SE «Mine named after Kyselyov», LLC «Enrichment Plant No. 105», LLC «Valeya» and LLC «Firma «Hermes-1») had a real commodity nature. In this regard, the court concluded that the plaintiff had the right to form a tax credit and expenses that are taken into account in determining the object of taxation for operations with the listed contractors», — indicated in the court’s decision.

In the photo — Andriy Orlov

The fiscal inspection essentially revealed «Centrenergo»’s internal business kitchen. This kind of kompromat can be divided into two parts. The first consists of the energy company’s acquisition of goods at inflated prices, and the second represents the fixation of business relations with enterprises that, according to tax authorities, have connections with the occupiers of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and are figures in numerous criminal proceedings. For example, the mentioned mine named after Kiselev was actually a conduit through which representatives of the so-called «DPR» secured coal supplies from the captured enterprises «Snizhneanthracite», «Shakhtarskanthracite», and «Torezanthracite» to the Zmiivska TPP «Centrenergo».

In the photo — Ihor Kononenko

Another mentioned contractor is LLC «Enrichment Plant No. 105», considered close to the scandalously known ex-member of parliament from the Party of Regions Andriy Orlov (was a client of his family bank Europrombank), according to the investigation, orchestrated a coal supply scheme to «Centrenergo» from illegal quarries near the villages of Stepanivka and Illyinka in the Maryinskyi district of the Donetsk region.

According to the media, these supplies were carried out during 2015-2016, and after the cessation of trade connections between Ukraine and the ATO zone, which occurred in the spring of this year, they were not conducted. After that, the company, under the supervision of army comrade Petro Poroshenko Ihor Kononenko, resumed coal imports from Russia, the sender of which was the «Sadkinske» administration, as well as the Panamanian intermediary Datoro Corp.

oligarh.media