Azerbaijan may increase customs duties on car imports
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee may consider increasing the customs duties on car imports in the country.
This step will be possible after commissioning of the joint Azerbaijani-Iranian car plant, Aydin Aliyev, head of the Committee, told reporters on October 11.
“It is too early to think about raising customs duties on car imports. In recent years, the import of cars to Azerbaijan has significantly decreased,” Aliyev said.
He noted that in order to think about increasing import duties, it is necessary that the car plant in Neftchala runs at full capacity. “Only after this we will analyze whether import hinders domestic production,” he said.
While visiting the Neftchala Industrial District in September, President Ilham Aliyev noted that the plant will help to a certain extent to eliminate dependence on imported cars and at the same time, there will be opportunities for exports.
The Azerbaijani-Iranian car plant being constructed in Neftchala region of Azerbaijan is expected to be launched in December 2017. The annual production capacity of the plant will be 10,000 cars, 2,000 of which are designed for export. The factory, which is created on the basis of modern technologies, equipment and mechanisms, will produce such car models as Runna, Samand, Soren, Dena, Peugeot-206, Peugeot-207, Renault-Tondar, and Renault-Pickup.
As many as 4,000 cars of these models have already been sold in the local market.
The State Customs Committee reports that Azerbaijan imported 5,662 units of vehicles in January-August this year, while the figure was 3,454 in the same period of 2016. As many as 4,874 of the vehicles imported this year are cars and motor vehicles, while 603 are trucks.
It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan imported 5,746 vehicles in 2016 as compared to 26,785 in 2015.
Meanwhile, experts note an increase in the Azerbaijani car market. If in 2005 the number of cars in the country was around 50,000, today their number exceeds 1.3 million. However, Azerbaijan still lags behind of such countries as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia in terms of the number of cars per capita.
The shift to Euro-4 in 2014 influenced taxes on imported cars. Prices for cars meeting Euro-4 standards are higher than prices for Euro-2 standard cars. Depending on the size of the engine, the amount of taxes on cars imported into the country varies.
---
Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz