State budget losses from illegal coffee market reach UAH 1 bln – Hetmantsev

Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev drew the attention of the Economic Security Bureau and the State Tax Service to the coffee circulation sector, which has become one of the most problematic in terms of tax payment, the state's losses reach UAH 1 billion.

"We all love starting the morning with coffee. But what is a daily habit for us has long been an industry with significant losses for the state. The problems begin at the customs clearance stage: every year, one in three tonnes of coffee is smuggled — either disguised as chicory or imported without any declaration. The leaders in customs clearance are Kyiv and Lviv customs offices," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to him, the problems do not end at customs: in cash-based schemes for selling illegal coffee, both markets and large retail chains – structured through individual entrepreneurs – are involved, resulting in losses exceeding UAH 1 billion.

The MP noted that in the first nine months of 2025, the sector showed disappointing performance: the VAT payment rate, while rising to 1.45% (up by 0.28 percentage points compared to 2024), remains 0.46 percentage points lower than in 2023, and the corporate income tax fell to 0.85% (less by 0.09 percentage points compared to 2024).

The main risk in the sector, according to Hetmantsev, is the level of wages, with 89% of employers paying below the market-average salary of UAH 12,900, whereas, according to work.ua, the market average is UAH 22,000. Moreover, in more than 18% of enterprises, the average salary is below the minimum wage, indicating the use of tax evasion schemes.