Deputy Minister: Some government agencies against VAT differentiation
By Amina Nazarli
The Azerbaijani Taxes Ministry faced with the dissatisfaction of
a number of state bodies and institutions when it presented a bill
on application of differentiated VAT rates.
Deputy Minister of Taxes Sahib Alakbarov announced about this while
talking to reporters on November 30.
Government agencies have different opinions on the draft law, according to him.
"This is a very serious and difficult question. Not all in favor of the adoption of this law. There are some structures, which are against. Nevertheless, it is a project that will be discussed in the Parliament, taking into account all the views, possibly before the end of the year," he said.
The draft law, according to Alakbarov is about VAT differentiation in various areas, including, sale of medicines.
"Determination of the reduced VAT rate for medicines is an
important issue. Another important area is school supplies," he
said.
Chief of the Main Department for Tax Policy and Strategic Research
of the Ministry Samir Musayev earlier said that the Ministry
examined the experience of foreign countries in VAT
differentiation. In Europe, the average VAT rate is 20 percent, and
in comparison with it 18 percent in Azerbaijan - not such a high
rate, according to him.
For example, in Europe VAT differentiation rate is applied in food and light industry, in the areas of sales of children's clothes, products manufactured by small and medium-sized businesses.
In Azerbaijan, there is a single rate of VAT at 18 percent.
Alakbarov went on to say about taxation of services provided through the Internet, noting that the Ministry will work more intensively on the issue of bringing them to taxation.
The taxation of e-commerce has long been on the agenda, and the ministry has been seriously working in this direction for several years.
"It's not just about e-commerce. Mostly the amended law will be aimed at bringing to taxation e-commerce providers," he said, adding that globally, it has long been a stable trend.
"Many countries have already joined to this process, and starting January 1, Russia will also join it. This is a serious issue. We studied it and we think that in the near future after the changes in the legislation, intensive work will be carried out in this area," he said.
E-commerce envisages not only online purchase and sale of certain goods but also online-games, e-exchange, downloading of mobile applications, music, films, through the services like iTunes.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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