Gazeta Wyborcza: Belarusian diesel is exported to Poland illegally

Dummy company sells diesel fuel fom Belarus to Poland and not pay VAT.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) suspects a number of firms importing Belarusian diesel fuel into Poland of evading value-added tax.

According to the newspaper, the possible VAT evasion scheme may cost the Polish treasury more than $200 million in lost revenues annually.

Several months ago, ABW launched a probe to look at Polish-bound shipments of diesel fuel made by Belarus’ oil refineries in Mazyr and Navapolatsk.

The shipments, which arrive in Poland either directly from Belarus or via Latvia and Lithuania, came to the attention of ABW at the end of 2011.

Last year, some fuel trading firms based near the border started to perform poorly and some even liquidated to be replaced by suppliers unknown in the market before, said Puls Biznesu.

The new suppliers deliver diesel fuel directly to the end-buyers, no longer offering them an opportunity to collect it at a warehouse, the newspaper says.

At the same time, their prices are too low, and ABW investigators believe that the firms make money on evading VAT, according to the report.