Details added (first version posted on 12:25)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
It is planned to decrease tax rates in order to encourage non-cash payments in Azerbaijan, the country’s Deputy Taxes Minister Ilkin Valiyev said.
He made the remarks at a press conference dedicated to execution of the Azerbaijani president’s order, dated Aug. 4, 2016, “On improvement of tax administration and approval of directions of reforms in taxation in 2016.”
“Encouraging non-cash payments and limiting cash payments will lead to a rise in the number of POS-terminals and to the transparency in the payment of taxes,” said Valiyev. “We have already had a few suggestions in connection with the expansion of non-cash payments.”
“One of these offers envisages that any payments that excess 1,000 manats a day must be carried out by non-cash ways,” he noted. “Moreover, we have offered to reduce the rate of VAT or any other tax in order to encourage non-cash payments.”
The deputy minister added that these offers are at the stage of discussions.
This issue is not only related to the Taxes Ministry, noted Valiyev adding that various structures are involved in it and the negotiation process is being conducted in order to specify the cost of banking services and others.
Turnover on payment cards via ATMs and POS-terminals amounted to 1.05 billion manats in June 2016 (growth by 6.2 percent compared to the same period of 2015) in the country, while the total volume of operations was 6.99 million manats (decrease by 0.5 percent), according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
The amount of payment cards decreased by 0.5 percent during the year and was 5.47 million in Azerbaijan, including 4.69 million debit cards and 782,000 – credit cards.