While Ukraine systematically raised electricity tariffs for businesses, the PLAZA shopping center in Zakarpattia, according to the investigation, paid for electricity at the same rate as an ordinary city apartment. The Office of the Prosecutor General's press service announced the suspicion against the entrepreneur.
The scheme: papers say "apartment," meter counts shopping center
According to the criminal investigation materials, the electricity distribution contract listed a residential building — not a commercial facility. In reality, the shopping center PLAZA was connected to the network. According to the investigation, the entrepreneur forged the contract and never informed the supplier about the actual nature of consumption.
«The investigation believes that the entrepreneur forged the electricity distribution contract and did not inform the supplier about the actual nature of consumption. As a result, electricity was supplied at a significantly lower residential tariff for nearly five years».
Press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General
What the tariff difference means
The residential tariff in Ukraine is fixed and subsidized by the state: as of June 2024, it stands at 4.32 UAH/kWh. For commercial consumers, the price is determined differently — through exchange trading on the "Day-ahead Market" and additional components (distribution, transmission, supplier markup), which together result in significantly higher costs. In previous years, before the residential tariff increase, the gap between residential and commercial rates was even larger.
The suspicion is built precisely on this difference: for nearly five years, a commercial facility received a preferential tariff intended exclusively for residential premises and dacha cooperatives.
Suspicion is not conviction
It is important to note: notification of suspicion is a procedural step by the investigation, not a court-established conviction. The entrepreneur has the right to a defense and to refute the charges in court. The Office of the Prosecutor General did not publicly name the suspect, specify the exact amount of damages, and did not clarify whether there are other parties involved in the case — for example, among those who signed or verified the contract on the supplier's side.
- Suspicion — of document forgery and fraud (the Office of the Prosecutor General did not disclose the specific criminal code article in the public statement).
- Duration of the scheme — approximately five years.
- Object — PLAZA shopping center in Zakarpattia.
- Mechanism — a forged contract with a fictitious status of "residential building."
An open question remains that goes beyond this case alone: if the contract passed through the supplier's accounting system for five years without verification of the actual type of facility — is this an isolated incident, or did the investigation check similar connection points throughout the entire region?
