Ban on pre-election checks of media further flouted, this time in Lutsk

The Lutsk TV and Radio broadcaster “Avers” has received an unscheduled visitation from the tax police.  The Chief Editor, Natalya Moskovka says that when they mentioned the current moratorium on such checks the tax police said that it was the first time they were hearing of it.

On 24 July Avers received notification of an unscheduled check over 5 working days. The notification states that the purpose is to check adherence to tax, foreign currency and other legislation.  The check began on 26 July.

The President of the Avers Corporation, Oleh Velychko says that the company has submitted its tax declaration on time and that the check concerns the period from 2010-2011, an old dispute with the Tax Administration over permits to use radio frequencies. He says that they couldn’t register our tax records since they didn’t have the permits which they only received on 2 February. The tax people carried out a check and imposed a fine which they lodged an appeal over.  Since their civil suit is still at appeal stage the decision has not come into force, yet now the tax police have descended over the same issue.

He expresses surprise that the check over something which is presently being appealed by the courts should be taking place before the elections and that the Lutsk tax police don’t know of the moratorium.

Telekritika has asked the State Tax Administration for its comments.

The moratorium was finally passed by the Verkhovna Rada on 9 February, however the recent criminal proceedings initiated against the main independent television channel in Ukraine TVi would seem to indicate that the authorities are not planning to observe it.

Based on a report at Telekritika