OREANDA-NEWS. The Federal Tax Service has begun on-site inspections of Russian branches of tobacco companies and has already accrued 60 billion rubles in taxes, excluding penalties and fines.  These are Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International (PMI) and Don Tobacco (part of Japan Tobacco International, JTI).

 According to the results of inspections of two enterprises over two years, Imperial Tobacco can pay up to 204 million pounds sterling (16.4 billion rubles).  The company stated that they had fully paid all taxes at excise rates on the date of transactions.  The group has objections to the preliminary findings of the Federal Tax Service, and Imperial Tobacco has already conveyed them to the authorities.  Now the FTS has initiated a new check.

 "Our company operates in strict accordance with the requirements of the current legislation of the Russian Federation. At present, our company has not filed any claims on tax debts by the Federal Tax Service," said Sergey Vice President for Corporate Affairs of PMI in Russia  Slipchenko.