The Kyiv Office of the State Tax Service has posted a statement confirming that an unscheduled check is indeed being carried out of TVi. It asserts that the check is at the “lawful and mandatory demand of an investigator from the Kyiv Police Department.

The statement then goes on to explain that according to the Tax Code, such demands from the investigator must be complied with and then states that: “the State Tax Service cannot disregard the lawful demands of the investigator and acts within the framework and in the manner stipulated by Ukraine’s legislation. The said check is being carried out on the decision of an investigator in order to establish the truth in a criminal case initiated by the Prosecutor’s office which is being investigated by investigators subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior.

If the Tax Service officers are not allowed to carry out the check, they will act in accordance with legislation”.

As reported, last Thursday the General Director of TVi, Mykola Knyazhytsky stated that his channel was facing pressure from the tax authorities and called on the Interior Ministry and the Tax Service to deal with the situation.

He reported that they were now facing another tax inspection only a few months after the previous one. They had been approached, he continued, by an official who explained that they wanted access to TVi to make an unscheduled check of compliance with tax legislation regarding payment of VAT and tax on profits from 1 January 2008 to 31 September 2010.

The grounds, he says, for the check was a decision issued by an investigator from the Pechersky Police Station from 04.04.2012 on Criminal Case No. 76-000323.

Mykola Knyazhytsky stresses that such a check was already carried out in 2011, although the check then covered the period from 22 May 2003 through to the end of 2010.

“Solomyansk District office of the State Tax Service will thus be carrying out a check of TVi’s activities during the same period and under the same circumstances for payment of tax on profits and VAT”

He adds that the tax body is already carrying out yet another check on site for the period from 1 October to 31 December 2011.

“Two checks at the same time will lead to the blocking of the channel’s normal work”.

TVi is generally considered one of the two channels still giving wide coverage to the opposition and opinions critical of the current regime. It had its frequencies seriously curtailed in 2010.