Financial Administration President Frantisek Imrecze Resigns from his Post
Bratislava, September 19 (TASR) – At the session of the parliamentary financial committee where he came to explain the scandal involving Chinese goods-related customs frauds on Wednesday, Financial Administration (tax office) president Frantisek Imrecze announced he will resign from his post.
Imrecze said he made the decision to resign on Wednesday, as he doesn’t want to damage the Financial Administration. “My decision is related to one thing – the Financial Administration is still dragged into the political fight. I’m not a politician, I have no tools to defend myself against the political demagogy, but it’s chiefly detrimental to the institution and its employees,” said Imrecze.
“We in the Financial Administration have passed through fatal crises since 2012. I found it disrupted, with non-functional information systems. We managed to consolidate the institution, eliminate frauds involving excessive VAT deductions and thus reduce a tax gap on VAT. However, nobody in the political fight was interested in this. That’s why I decided to resign,” said Imrecze.
Before announcing his decision to resign, Imrecze informed MPs of the committee that Slovakia is not obliged to pay €300 million and that it will use legal tools to defend itself, so that it doesn’t have to pay a single euro in the case of alleged customs frauds.
During its investigation into textile and footwear imports from China to the EU, the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) uncovered customs frauds totalling €2.2 billion, with goods worth roughly €300 million of the sum entering the EU via Slovakia. The customs frauds took place mostly in 2013-14, when the Financial Administration, which also includes customs authorities, was run by Imrecze.
