Every gas station in Ukraine will be inspected to stop the spread of illegal fuel trade, Minister of Community and Territorial Development Oleksiy Chernyshov said during a meeting with the Oil and Gas Association of Ukraine on March 27.
Although authorities have successfully cracked down on illegal gas stations in the past few years, production volumes of illegal fuel mini-refineries and fuel trafficking are currently on the rise.
“Unfortunately… with the introduction of quarantine measures, the illegal segment flourished,” President of the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Association Nelia Pryvalova told the Kyiv Post.
Special commissions have been established in all regions of Ukraine to check the licenses and permits of gas stations allegedly engaged in illegal activities.
Stations with missing or falsified documents will be taken offline or completely dismantled, Pryvalova said.
Most illegal gas stations have no operating licence or land use registration and sell fuel without cash registers.
According to the association, 40% of illegal gas stations use their off-the-books cash to buy fuel from mini-refineries, which distorts the market.
“Losses to the state budget from such fraud range from Hr 10.9 to 14.6 billion,” Pryvalova wrote.
Illegal stations also do not comply with legal safety regulations, creating a higher risk of fuel spills, fires and explosions.
“We are confident that the elimination of illegal fuel turnover in the country will ensure equal conditions for doing business, reduce prices for consumers, (and) contribute to the development of the industry,” wrote Pryvalova.
In 2018, there were more than 1,500 known illegally operating gas stations in Ukraine. In response, the association introduced an interactive map that consumers could use to inform authorities about the stations’ presence.
This plus the introduction of mandatory licenses in the retail fuel market made it possible to reduce the number of known violators to just 65 in 2019.
