Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 25 / Trend Trend A. Akhundov /
The State Customs Committee (SCC) has finalised the final draft to pass to a three-stage tariff system that has been under preparation for two years, SCC chairman Aydin Aliyev told Trend on Friday.
The State Committee has agreed on a project with the relevant executive authorities and presented it to the government.
According to Aliyev, the project is aligned with the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System 2012 adopted by the World Customs Organisation.
"Development of the non-oil sector and production of competitive products are directly related to customs and tariff policy. In order to ensure the economic security of the country, some types of production equipment, various raw materials and supplies are exempt from VAT and customs duties on imports, or are subject to lower tariff rates. Alongside, in order to protect domestic production from negative effects of foreign competition, higher tariffs at 15 per cent apply on a number of finished products," Aliyev said.
According to him, current tariffs meet the requirements for the economic development of the country.
"If necessary, some procedures to change tariffs in the medium term may be considered following the extensive analysis", said Aliyev.
Currently, tariffs in Azerbaijan are regulated by a law adopted in 1995. The Customs tariff is a set of duties applied to goods transferred through the customs border of Azerbaijan and classified in accordance with the commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity.
Proposals for the transition from a three-level tariff system to multi-level differentiated system provide for maintaining the country's rates at 0.5 and 15 per cent
Today, Azerbaijan uses a system of customs tariffs adopted in 2001. The Republic's rates are 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 per cent. Earlier, four rates were to be retained - 0, 5, 10 and 15 per cent. A 10 per cent rate was later excluded from the proposed package.