Plinskyi urged NABU to check the STS over the past two years amid the detention of tax officials in Ternopil

NABU reported the detention of the deputy head of the Ternopil tax office while receiving funds that, according to investigators, were demanded in exchange for the lawful VAT refund to businesses. Against this backdrop, journalist Yevhen Plinskyi highlighted large-scale corruption problems in the State Tax Service and called for an investigation into its activities over the past two years.

This was reported by journalist Yevhen Plinskyi.

According to him, the activities of the STS under the leadership of Lesia Karnaukh over the past two years had remained outside the attention of law enforcement, despite complaints from business representatives about extortion and the operation of conversion centers.

Plinskyi links this to the political influence of former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who, he claims, controlled the STS. The journalist also states that representatives of Kravchenko’s circle allegedly had a quota for appointing Karnaukh’s deputies.

According to Plinskyi, after losing this “protection,” the situation began to change rapidly. Prime Minister Serhii Koretsky dismissed Karnaukh, and law enforcement agencies started publicly reporting on corruption schemes in the tax service.

In particular, NABU announced the exposure of a scheme in which 11.5% of the refund amount was demanded in exchange for the lawful VAT refund to businesses in the Ternopil region.

Detectives detained the deputy head of the Ternopil tax office while receiving funds from a VAT refund of UAH 14.6 million. Plinskyi, citing journalist Taras Seredych, identifies her as Maria Melnyk.

The journalist draws attention specifically to the size of the percentage. In his view, such an amount may indicate the existence of a systemic scheme that is not limited to the level of a single regional division of the STS.

Plinskyi also claims that VAT remains not only an important tax for budget formation but also one of the key corruption tools in the tax system. He believes that collecting such sums at the regional STS level may involve their further distribution at the Kyiv level.

Separately, the journalist criticized the government’s idea of raising the VAT rate to 21%. According to him, if VAT refunds are already accompanied by extortion, increasing the rate could make such schemes even more costly for businesses. At the same time, the higher tax would ultimately be passed on to the end consumer.

Plinskyi also suggests that if a separate fund is created to support businesses affected by the war, new corruption risks could arise — from demanding kickbacks to applying criteria of business loyalty and the loyalty of its owners to the authorities.

According to the journalist, the STS has historically remained one of the main corrupt elements of the state system, where curators and those responsible for financial flows change, but the format of operations allegedly remains the same.

He questions how deeply law enforcement agencies, particularly NABU, will be able to investigate the activities of the STS and possible corruption schemes over the past two years. Plinskyi claims that many criminal proceedings have already been opened and the evidence base has allegedly been collected, but there used to be a “taboo” on their progress.

Separately, the journalist cited a fragment of an analytical report from one of the law enforcement agencies regarding a scheme of illegal fuel production.

The document cited by Plinskyi claims there was systematic evasion of excise tax under the guise of bioethanol production. According to the authors of the report, it actually involved the illegal production of ethyl alcohol, its sale outside tax control using a zero excise rate, and subsequent legalization through fictitious processing into non-excisable products.

The report also states that the scheme was allegedly facilitated by STS officials, including the Director of the Department for Control of Excisable Goods of the STS of Ukraine, Kh.G. Bozhenko, and relevant service employees. The document indicates that this occurred “with the consent of Acting Head Karnaukh L.A.”

According to the data in the report, from January 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026, the volume of risky operations amounted to 17.68 million liters, and estimated budget losses exceeded UAH 3.5 billion. The authors of the document see signs of organized criminal activity in this.

At the same time, Plinskyi notes that, despite these data, the excise department of the STS, according to his information, continues to be controlled by the so-called “Monaco group.” The journalist claims that its representatives remotely profit from excise tax schemes.

Plinskyi emphasizes that under wartime conditions, this involves significant resources that could be flowing into the state budget. He estimates Ukraine’s daily war needs at $190 million.

In his opinion, without changing the approach to the work of the STS, additional taxes — including VAT on parcels or taxation of income from OnlyFans — will not provide the economy with the necessary resources.

The journalist estimates the share of the economy operating in the corrupt shadow at 30% and believes that significant resources for filling the state budget remain there.