STB Threatened With Court Action

The State Tax Administration of Ukraine is considering the possibility of initiating criminal proceedings against the STB Television Company on charges of tax evasion, the STAU press service announced on September 3. The tax police has allegedly established that STB's commercials and ads made up 8.1% of total time on the air in July, totaling over UAH 2.5 million, according to the channel's rates, while UAH 19,000 was paid as tax returns. In view of this, the tax militia suspended operations with the STB account with Ukreksimbank, explained the press service.

Meanwhile, STB sent a statement to the media and news agencies, categorically denying the tax police findings and reiterating that blocking the channel had nothing to do with economic reasons. The document reads, in part, that it is absolutely unclear who monitored the channel's advertising time and when. There is no information about the legal entity responsible for the authenticity of these findings or methods applied in obtaining the data.

Added to the total advertising time was the time of announcements made in the course of the channel's own programs, which is obviously improper. In addition, STB's total advertising budget in July was determined by simply multiplying this hypothetical time by the cost of advertising per minute, without taking into account any of the price discount structures practiced by every advertising company. The tax police even ignored the fact that STB did not own its advertising time in July, because exclusive advertising rights was by then held by another business entity, STB PLUS, which uses its own advertising rates.

STB President Dmytro Prykordonny , commenting on the tax evasion charges, says he is «absolutely sure they without proof.» He hopes that the judiciary will take an unbiased stand in the case, and that the public attention focused on STB's continuing travails will not allow them to eliminate the channel.

What the executive is after is clear: crushing the one television company that does not want to accept the unwritten rules of the game in this country. The more so that the Verkhovna Rada session's first day agenda includes a point about signing a contract with STB for live transmissions of Parliament, avoided by all the other companies, which is precisely what the Bankova Street boys in the Presidential Administration are struggling to prevent.