Government and business agree on steps to de-shadow the electronics market

A working group will be set up under the coordination of the Business Ombudsman Council to de-shadow the electronics market, the Bureau of Economic Security and State Tax Service reported Thursday after meeting with representatives of the largest electronics and appliances retailers.

Among its priorities will be the development of a draft law on the registration of IMEI codes of mobile devices to combat gray imports.

The current analysis of the STS records large-scale violations in the electronics market – from gray imports of smartphones to payment of salaries in envelopes and artificial splitting of large businesses into individual entrepreneurs.

"Just last week, during 118 orders of gadgets, including the iPhone 17, in 23 cases, either a missing receipt or an imitation of one was found in the amount of almost 500,000. Some checks are creative. But they have nothing to do with the real thing. By the way, I offered all the participants an experiment – to sell only with correct fiscal receipts. We will see whether it will go further than declarations," said Lesia Karnaukh, acting head of the State Tax Service.

"A separate topic is timekeeping. Almost 70% of actual inspections were accompanied by timekeeping of business operations. This allows us to objectively assess real sales volumes. As a result, the revenue of retail chains has increased several times. But as soon as the tax authorities leave the facility, the volumes fall," she said .

• According to a survey by Rakuten Viber, in Ukraine the phone is most often changed every four to five years. Only 1% of respondents said they buy a new phone with the release of a new model every year.