Kalev                             ANNOUNCEMENT 15.04.2005



Commentary to the article in Äripäev, 14 April 2005



The article in yesterday's Äripäev - that Kalev concealed a huge  sugar  cache  in

its warehouses -  shows  that  the  newspaper  was  working  with  inadequate  and

inaccurate information when it wrote the article, due to which the piece does  not

give a true picture of the situation.



The Tax  and  Customs  Board  (TCB)  has  indeed  been  inspecting  Kalev's  sugar

warehouse stock and declarations starting on 8  November  2004.  AS  Kalev,  which

manufactures confections from sugar, is one of Estonia's biggest sugar  users  and

thus the fact that it is inspected by the TCB is completely normal.



"As of today, inspections are still under way and no tax decision  concerning  the

firm has been made. As a matter of fact, the deadline for  presenting  AS  Kalev's

positions to TCB has not even been arrived," said director  of  AS  Kalev,  Oliver

Kruuda.



According to him, the law says data submitted to the  TCB  during  the  inspection

should only be available to the participants in the proceedings.  If  any  working

drafts of tax board documents have been leaked to  the  press,  then  clearly  tax

confidentiality has  been  violated  and  Kalev's  interests  as  a  taxpayer  and

employer have been harmed.



"We are of the position that AS Kalev has complied with legal  acts  in  force  in

Estonia in the case of all business transactions, and accusations to the  contrary

have no basis in reality. AS Kalev intends to take action  to  defend  its  lawful

rights," said Oliver Kruuda



He said it was regrettable that tax secrets concerning private  firms  were  being

used as a way to get at other political parties. Looking at the media in the  last

few days, it can be clearly seen that the change of governing coalition  has  been

accompanied by attempts to make a political scapegoat as regards the  sugar  fine.

"The leak comes as no surprise, since if you look at the papers for the  last  few

days, a foundation was in the  process  of  being  created  to  leak  confidential

information," added Oliver Kruuda.





Ruth Roht

PR manager

+372 6 077 858