Ukraine introduces IMEI control on phone imports: the budget could receive 5 billions of hryvnias per year

Ukraine is introducing IMEI control on phone imports: the budget could receive 5 billions of hryvnias per year

The State Budget of Ukraine will receive an additional five billion hryvnias per year thanks to the mandatory indication of IMEI numbers for mobile phones in customs declarations during import.

This is written in a Telegram post by Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, director of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.

It concerns the mandatory indication of IMEI numbers for mobile phones in customs declarations during import.

According to him, this is the end of anonymity for smuggling.

"This is an initiative of the BEB (Bureau of Economic Security) which we jointly discussed with the Ministry of Finance and the State Customs Service with representatives of the largest legitimate electronics retail chains. Positions on individual details varied, but everyone agreed on the main point: smuggling should not have an advantage over business that operates honestly," the post says.

Tsyvinsky noted that the Ministry of Finance already signed the relevant order, and the Ministry of Justice conducted its state registration.

"Every phone has its own IMEI — a unique number, like a fingerprint. Until now, no one at customs asked for it. Therefore, 'gray' imports felt so free: a batch of devices, 'from nowhere,' with no trace, no name," explained the head of BEB.

"Now every phone will introduce itself at the border. And what has a name cannot be carried invisibly. For those who have earned money for years on gray imports and electronics smuggling, this is the end of the usual schemes," he wrote on Telegram.

The next step is IMEI in fiscal receipts. BEB, together with the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service, is developing the corresponding implementation algorithm.