Azerbaijan to continue simplification of customs procedures
Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee will continue work on further simplification of customs procedures when implementing export-import operations, Aydin Aliyev, chairman of the committee, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee will continue work on further simplification of customs procedures when implementing export-import operations, Aydin Aliyev, chairman of the committee, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He said that this is one of the main priorities of the work of the customs committee. He noted that the work is underway to develop the customs transit procedure in accordance with the Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention) and to apply the e-TIR procedure.
“To speed up the implementation of the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS), which will allow us to exchange information based on bilateral agreements, we appealed to the joint EU-EFTA (European Free-Trade Association) committee, which is the governing body of the conventions on a common transit procedure and on the simplification of formalities in trade in goods,” he said.
“On Dec. 5 last year, at a meeting of the joint committee in the city of Oslo, Azerbaijan’s appeal was considered and decision was made to grant Azerbaijan the non-formal observer country status,” he added.
Aydin Aliyev noted that an adhoc working group was set up to bring Azerbaijani legislation in line with the requirements of the convention for the effective application of the customs guarantee mechanism during transit operations and, in general, for the improvement of skills of customs authorities.
“All this is aimed at preparation for joining the abovementioned conventions and the application of the NCTS,” he said.
Aydin Aliyev also noted that after the relevant technical work on the implementation of the TIR Electronic Pre-Declaration (TIR-EPD) application [that allows transport operators to send advance information on goods transported under TIR procedure to customs authorities in every country along the TIR journey in one go] is completed in Azerbaijan, it is planned to launch an e-TIR pilot project aimed at fully usage of the e-TIR procedure.
“If earlier, e-TIR projects were implemented only bilaterally between neighboring countries, the project, in which Azerbaijan will take part as well, for the first time will cover a greater number of countries involved in the corresponding transport corridor,” he added.
New system of customs duties not aimed at protectionism
The introduction of a new system of customs duties is not aimed at their increase or protectionism policy, said the chairman.
He said that not only provision of budget revenues, but also the regulation of domestic production was the main task of introducing the new system.
“We think that we could ensure the fulfillment of this task,” he said. “I believe that the necessary support will be rendered to the development of the non-oil sector and the expansion of domestic production as a result of the application of the new customs and tariff system.”
He said that that during the preparation of the new system, the import duty rates for raw materials and goods used in production and the production of which was not established in Azerbaijan, were reduced to zero percent, while rates for raw materials and goods the production of which is at an insufficient level - from 15 percent and 10 percent to 5 percent.
“At the same time, I would like to note that in relation to the products having the production potential within Azerbaijan, maximum customs duties have been set, while for a number of products, the rates of customs duties have been kept in the form of specific duties,” he said.
Commenting on the possible impact of the new system of customs duties on revenues to the state budget, Aliyev added that this influence will be insignificant.
“The forecast for revenues to the state budget-2018 in the amount of 2.43 billion manats will be completely fulfilled,” he said.
Azerbaijan switched to a new system of customs duties on Jan. 1, 2018. The new duties are regulated by the “Goods Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity, Customs Rates for Import and Export.”
Since 2001, the customs rates of 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 percent were applied in the country. Starting from this year, only rates of 0, 5 and 15 percent on imported raw materials and goods are applied in Azerbaijan.
A zero rate is levied on the majority of the goods (raw materials and equipment) starting from this year, including even those from which a customs duty of 0.5 percent was previously levied.
This applies to those types of commodity groups (in particular, 84 and 85 groups), which, upon the order of the Cabinet of Ministers, are already subject to VAT at zero rate when importing.
The customs rate of five percent is levied on semi-finished products. As for the finished products, the rate on them increased up to 15 percent.
For example, a 15 percent rate is imposed on imports of various golden and silver products. The rate for the import of books, magazines, newspapers, brochures and other printed items has increased from three percent to five percent. At the same time, import of paper used for the issue of newspapers is exempt from import duties. A number of plastic products, parts of musical instruments, helicopters, airplanes, a number of varieties of live fish are also exempt from import duties. Import duties have been reduced for some goods, such as baby food.