Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Henceforth individuals will be able to import only 30 kilograms of various food products per month into Azerbaijan without paying customs duties.

The Azerbaijani State Customs Committee reported that the corresponding changes have been made to the "Procedure of privileged and simplified movement of goods, which are not intended for production or commercial purposes, by physical entities through the customs border".

The changes will come into force 30 days after publication, i.e. August 11.

Currently, physical entities are allowed to transport up to 10 kilograms of various food products daily without paying customs duties.

Other changes include the export of caviar and fish from Azerbaijan. So, without paying the customs duties, the physical entities will be able to transport up to five kilograms of sturgeon and up to 125 grams of sturgeon caviar through the customs border once a month.

The committee reported that at present, the volumes of fish and caviar export from Azerbaijan are not clearly indicated in the customs regulations.

Moreover, the changes include the import of precious metals and stones by physical entities into Azerbaijan.

The changes also affected expensive metals. Currently, physical entities can import no more than 20 grams of gold and gold jewelry or household goods, as well as no more than 0.5 carat of processed, sorted, faceted and fixed diamonds with a total cost of no more than $1,500 (an additional amount of $500 per each accompanying person under 18) into the territory of Azerbaijan without paying customs duties.

However, after changes, such volumes can be transported no more than once a month.

According to the committee, in general, physical entities once a month will be able to import goods with a total cost of $1,500 (an additional amount of $500 per each accompanying person under 18) into the territory of Azerbaijan without paying customs duties and taxes.

The economic analysis shows that while registering the goods by using certain people, physical entities have been recently trying to transport those goods through the border by indicating that those goods are not intended for production or commercial purposes, which results in tax evasion and smuggling.

The amount of revenue to the state budget from Azerbaijan State Customs Committee totaled 227.397 million manats (about $145 million) in April 2016, what is by 60.9 percent more compared to the same period of 2015.

Earlier, Chairman of the State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev said that the forecast on customs revenues to the state budget of Azerbaijan for the first four months of 2016 was exceeded by 23 percent.

Overall, the forecast on customs revenues in the state budget is planned at 1.81 billion manats (about $1.15 billion).

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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