Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers made amendments to the excise duty rates of gasoline imports.

The decision, announced on February 26, said the rate of excise duty on motor gasoline with not more than a 95 octane rating (containing lead both below and above 0,013 grams per liter) is set at the level of $1 per ton of fuel.

The rate of this type of fuel is valid from February 7 to June 1 this year.

Excise duty on imported gasoline with an octane rating higher than 95, but not more than 98 (containing lead both below and above 0,013 grams per liter) is set at $100 per ton.

The rate of excise duty on the imports of motor gasoline with a 98 octane rating or higher (regardless of the contained lead) will be $150 per ton.

The rate of this type of fuel is valid from February 1.

These changes do not apply to imports of jet fuel.

In accordance with another decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the import of these fuels was exempted from customs duties.

The Cabinet of Ministers made a decision to change the excise duty rates of oil products in early February.

The decision points out that the excise tax rates on AI-95 gasoline decreased by 2.5 times, twice for AI-92 and AI-80 gasoline, 3.2 times for diesel fuel, 7.6 times for jet engine fuel, 5.4 times for naphtha, three times for liquefied gas, seven times for motor fuel (DT-36), 5.2 times for motor fuel (DT-20), 49 times for furnace oil, and 16.4 times for bitumen (BN-60/90, BNB-60/70).

The Cabinet of Ministers made a decision in July 2013 to reduce the rate of the excise tax for petroleum coke, petroleum bitumen, and the residual products of oil, oil refining, and bitumen-containing minerals from $30 to one dollar per ton.

The import of these types of oil products is also exempt from value-added tax (VAT) and customs duties whose rate was previously set at 15 percent in Azerbaijan. Now it will be equal to zero percent.

Earlier, under a decision by the Azerbaijani government dated January 21, 2013, the imports of gasoline with 95 and 92 octane rating was exempted from customs duty and excise tax until June 2014. This measure was not due to gasoline shortage in the country, but because of plans for suspending the catalytic cracking unit at the oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev.

Duty rate was cut from 15 percent to zero, and the excise duty rate on the imports of these gasoline brands was cut from $250 to $1 per ton.