The State Customs Service is getting interested in the activities of LUX-TRADE COMMERCE LLC, which imports to Ukraine significant volumes of Indian tobacco from Bulgaria. But nobody knows, what happens next with this tobacco in Ukraine.
The well-known in Ukraine journalist-investigator Yevhen Plinsky mentions about this case in his Telegram channel "Dirty Games".
"The fact is that this company continues the monthly import of Indian tobacco from Bulgaria in the amount of about 22,000 kg (approximately two truckloads). It is possible to produce from this amount of tobacco about 1.8 million packs of cigarettes! Almost 35 million cigarettes. But (…) everyone is wondering what happens next with this tobacco. Are cigarettes really produced from this tobacco and are excise stamps bought for it?" - mentions the question of representatives of the State Customs Service Yevhen Plinsky.
The journalist reminds that State Customs Service representatives began to ask the first similar questions about this company last summer.
As Mr. Plinsky reported back in July 2025, based on the data received from the State Tax Service, "this company received a license for the production of hookah tobacco back in August 2024, but has not yet purchased any excise stamps for 2024-2025".
But despite this, already in January-May 2025, the same company imported 940 tons of tobacco raw materials (approximately 25 full truckloads). And back then the same questions arose - "what kind of importer is this, where is all this tobacco stored and what are they planning to do with such a large amount of hookah tobacco? Because 940 tons is quite a lot," Yevhen Plinsky noted.
And since then, according to the new information received by the journalist from the State Customs Service, the situation about this company has not been become clear, and it continues to import 22 tons of Indian tobacco from Bulgaria to Ukraine monthly.
So the journalist addressed his concerns to the director of the Excise department of the State Tax Service Ms. Khrystyna Bozhenko, whether she has any answers regarding such strange activities of the mentioned tobacco importer.
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