Embassies of major exporters of exotic fruits to Ukraine - South Africa and Ecuador - have sent letters of claim to the Ministry of Economy and State Customs Service. Diplomats need explanations why the indicative prices, which are used in the processing cargo by Ukrainian customs and further calculation of value added tax, were unnecessarily increased, the newspaper Delo reports.

Interested importers do not hide the essence of the conflict. According to their data, the embassies require lowering indicative prices. Otherwise, the authorities of countries - suppliers of fruits intend to file a complaint about Ukraine to the World Trade Organization. “Ukraine violates WTO requirements in terms of production of access to market of Ukraine, creates artificial barriers "- explains the essence of the conflict President of the Association of importers of fruits Oleksandr Kalystratov.

Last week, companies-fruit imports appealed to the Ministry of Economy with similar claims. "Over the past two months, Customs Service demanded to carry out customs clearance of goods at prices that are twice higher than actual purchase prices of importers without any explanations" – is said in the document. Thus, the importers explain, the Customs Service is trying to fill the budget. According to Oleksandr Kalystratov, indicative prices for fruits have been changed in early September 2009. "The actual purchase price for fruits is by US $100 dollars cheaper. For example, Turkish citrus Turkish really costs US $0,7 per 1 kg, but they are making to write in the declaration US $0,8 per 1 kg", - said the manager of citrus company Arcadia Christina Kopelnytska.

According to the Ukrainian fruit company, the real price of imported bananas (CIF) in Odessa, as of September 11, 2009 amounted to U.S. $450 per ton net. "At the same time, we were forced to specify a different price – US $850 dollars –in the customs declaration”, the company said.

As a reminder, the import duty on import of fruits, which do not grow on the territory of Ukraine, has been canceled after the country's accession to the WTO. The only tax that importers must pay - VAT (20%), calculated on the basis of declarative amount.