Omega Pays Debt to Budget, Resumes Work

After 3 month pause, the tobacco factory of Omega Group has resumed working. The accounts of the Omega Group Tobacco (OGT) were unfrozen after it paid part of its debt to the state budget.

According to the information of Georgia’s Finance Ministry, the company had more than GEL 50 million debt to the state, adding they were not paying taxes.

In March 2018, the Revenue Service (RS) appealed to Tbilisi City Court to obtain a permit for the sale of seized property of OGT. In June, the Tbilisi City Court satisfied the request of the Revenue Service, which was appealed by the company. On the decision of the Appeals Court on 25 July 2018, the company's complaint was not satisfied and the Revenue Service was granted permission to sell the sequestered property of Omega Group., in case the company did not cover the debt.

The Revenue Service says Omega Group paid 1 million GEL on October 26 and asked for a renewal of production to "maintain jobs and continue production” so the company was granted such rights.

The RS says they made such a decision to let the company resume operations. According to the agency, Omega Group has to present a proposal on the schedule how it is going to cover the remaining debt.

Omega and its founder Zaza Okuashvili says that under the Georgian Dream leadership its cigarette company OGT suffered $100 million in losses after multinational company British American Tobacco violated the laws on competition and tobacco control with the help of the Georgian Dream government members.

The corporation says that they had to take loans from banks to cover their necessary expenses to the staff and the state budget but they failed to do so.

The company stressed they asked the government to restructure and reschedule their debt. According to them, the government does not help them because TV Company Iberia, which belongs to Omega Group, is often criticizing the authorities.