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Investigators accuse legendary light bulb factory of deliberate tax evasion

Squared Masks

On March 30, 2020, the police came to the entrance of the "Light of the XXI Century" group of companies (the successor of the Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant) and demanded to let them into the dangerous hot production. They did not show any orders or summons, except for service certificates, and when the guard asked to wait for the leadership, they simply jumped over the turnstile. It turned out that they just went to tell the chief accountant to call the investigator of the Investigative Department for the Tomsk Region of the Investigative Committee, Lieutenant Colonel N.V. Ganina.

So the Tomsk lamp workers were informed about the initiation of a criminal case on the facts of tax evasion in 2018-2019.

This happened on the very day when the forced vacation, announced by the President of the country because of the threat of a pandemic, began at the plant, as in the whole country. That is why the actions of the police were perceived as a treacherous blow to the breath. Only people who ensure the continuity of technological processes remained in production. And the chief accountant. Accountants know - a pandemic is a pandemic, but the annual report must be submitted. The head of the group of companies immediately contacted the investigator N.V. Ganina. "Hi" from which the police brought and with the representative of the Internal Affairs Directorate. In response: frank irritation of the investigator and surprise of the police: "what's the matter?"

After a series of days, after the end of the presidential vacation days, investigator N.V. Ganina herself came to the enterprise. accompanied by a dozen riot police. The mask show during the mandatory mask mode, squared masks, lasted 7 hours. All this time, the employees of the plant were sitting in offices with their hands on the tables.

Then there was a visit by the investigator to the chief accountant's home at 6.30 am, a home search.

Such means of demoralizing the team and consolidating the evidence base are good in relation to some cashier's office, one-day firm. But the Tomsk "Lamp" is a legendary, now significant enterprise not only for Tomsk. It survived the evacuation, the Great Patriotic War, the devastation of the 90s, and survived when the flagships of Russian lamp production went bankrupt. Every fourth Russian lamp is produced in Tomsk today.

Tomsk LEDs in products under the LEADLIGHT brand are most likely also lit in the office of investigator N.V. Ganina, who is conducting a case of allegedly deliberate tax evasion, which, by the way, were extinguished before the start of the investigation. Note that the schedule of repayment of the current debt of the group of companies in the amount of 12 million 923 thousand rubles has been submitted to the Tax Service and the money is already going to the budget. But the company and its managers are being searched, dozens of employees are being interrogated, production is in a fever, the investigating authorities are hinting at the imminent collapse of the enterprise. Who needed to start something resembling a raider attack during a pandemic threat?

Industrial production fell throughout Russia, unemployment in the Tomsk region tripled, real incomes of Tomsk residents fell, and here people in uniform are doing everything to destabilize the social and political situation in the region. Are the regional authorities aware of this? Will the Tomsk "Bulb" survive the next challenge of the time? Knowing her history, I want to believe that she will survive.

From incandescent lamp to LEDs

The provincial Siberian city of Tomsk, at that time the regional center of the Novosibirsk region, became a powerful industrial center during the war years. It was to Tomsk in September 1941 that two factories were evacuated away from the advancing fascists: the Moscow electric lamp and the Zaprudnensky glass plant. Three months later, on December 15, the joint plant produces the first thousand aviation lamps for front-line aircraft. Since then, this day has been considered the birthday of the Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant. Together with another 30 evacuees, it becomes a symbol of the city and the basis for the organization in 1944 of a separate Tomsk region. Many Muscovites remained after the war to work at the plant. The patriarchs of the industry worked at the Tomsk electric lamp, here they wrote textbooks, according to which all lamp-lamps of the country worked. The plant went through perestroika, the dashing 90s, producing light bulbs that were badly needed by the population then and now.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the plant became part of the B.A.B.C. He bought up almost all lamp production facilities in the CIS, opened a powerful production facility in the Shakhovskoy Moscow region, but could not withstand the competition with cheap Chinese lamps and went bankrupt in 2006, collecting loans. All members of the holding, including those who did not see borrowed funds, were the defendants for the loans. The largest electric lamp plant in the country, the Ufa one, was forced to close. The Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant survived. A third of the factory premises in the historic center of the university city remained. From the territory of the plant - two thirds. 70% of the once warm lamp cases went to creditors and are still empty.

But every cloud has a silver lining. A new team of managers, headed by Vladislav Golubev, actually creates a group of companies "Light of the XXI century" on the ruins of the plant, modernizes production. Transferring old production lines and creating new ones. It is supplied with autonomous gas heating, which greatly reduces costs. More than a quarter of a billion rubles were invested in the modernization. Then they began to periodically arise and also periodically extinguish tax arrears.

But a powerful reserve was made for the future. Since 2008, the plant was the first in Russia to start serial production of LED lamps.

In 2014, a prototype of the first lamp in Russia using filament LED radiating elements was created at the "Lamp" (as Tomsk residents still lovingly call the plant), which now received the symbolic name "TOMICHA LAMP". Today, a technology has been developed for its mass production based on high-speed production lines for incandescent lamps. During the costly technological re-equipment, tax debts arose. On purpose? Certainly. The management bought new materials, equipment, paid salaries to people, hoping to pay off debts later. And she began to do so, but now the investigators have deprived him of the opportunity to become a serviceable taxpayer.

On November 14, 2019, a new high-tech robotic line for the production of "Tomich bulbs" was officially launched. This breakthrough became possible with the support of the state, within the framework of the Federal Target Program of the Ministry of Education and Science, implemented jointly with the Tomsk University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics (TUSUR)

At the end of 2019, Tomsk "Lamp" became the only domestic manufacturer of filamentous LEDs. Where did Russian defense enterprises get their LED products before, history is silent.

The consumers of the plant's products are "Uralvagonzavod", "Ural plant of transport engineering", "PO Sevmash" with import, using the import-substituting products of Tomsk "Lamp." For several years, the plant has been producing glass capillaries and other semi-finished products for the manufacture of electro-optical converters (IITs) used in night vision devices. And the consumers of the Tomsk light bulb are millions of Russians, because every fourth light bulb produced in Russia is Tomsk!

In April 2020, during their forced holidays, when investigators were working on a criminal case of tax evasion, the plant developed and began production of devices for fighting viruses and pathogenic bacteria - LEADLIGHT ANTIVIRUS recirculators. At the end of July 2020, the governor of the Tomsk region, Sergei Zhvachkin, marveled, holding in his hands a new antivirus excilamp: another innovative development of scientists and Tomsk industrialists - JSC Polyus and the Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant. The head of the region even pre-ordered 1,000 lamps to equip schools, hospitals and concert halls. New lamps disinfect rooms in the presence of people. Who needs to slow down a dynamically developing enterprise that produces a quarter of all Russian lamps? Chinese or are there domestic ill-wishers?

It is encouraging that Tomsk lamp workers are immune to external threats at the gene, wartime, level. The plant workers will still fight!

Deliberate actions

We have to admit: today, few people calculate the economic, political and social consequences of an investigative run over the plant. 400 employees of the plant, plus eternally burning veterans - a serious force capable of stirring up public opinion on the eve of a single voting day on September 13. Why the regional authorities are inactive is understandable: after Furgal, no one wants to contact the Investigative Committee. And the very figure of the non-partisan and openly Orthodox Vladislav Golubev in the Tomsk region does not suit everyone. But they do not change horses in the crossing: the threat of a pandemic in the region has not yet passed.

But what drives the investigating authorities is a big question. Who will win if another Russian enterprise that produces products that is socially significant for the population disappears? How does this fit with the import substitution that President Vladimir Putin is talking about?

It is clear that investigators are not interested in such "trifles". There is a fact of tax arrears, intent is easy to prove: the plant paid wages, but they could have paid taxes!

Who in this situation is politically short-sighted, and who has a rare economic farsightedness?

There is no one to even ask a question.

Or will the authorities have their say?

Postscript

Last week, veterans and the plant's staff announced their desire to hold pickets on Novosobornaya Square with demands to protect the plant and its management. At the initiative of the administration of the Tomsk region, an emergency group was created and the first meeting was held among the deputy governors of the Tomsk region - on economics A. Antonov, on industrial policy Shaturny I. N., head of the department of industry and energy of the Tomsk region S. V. Markelov, Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Tomsk Region Zhalonkina I. Yu., representatives of the Investigative Committee and the FSB, management and veterans of the Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant, and a plan of action was outlined. The next meeting is to take place on September 4th.

We are waiting for the results!

In the meantime, the team finishes collecting signatures under the appeals to the Governor and the President and, of course, they work, releasing the products the country needs.

Source: Press Center of the Tomsk Electric Lamp Plant