BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
Azerbaijan continued tax reforms aimed at reducing the damage to entrepreneurs caused by COVID-19 pandemic, in May this year.
At the beginning of the month, the process of returning the value added tax (VAT) imposed on payments at trade and catering facilities was completed in the country, Head of Taxpayer Service Department of the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy Elchin Mammadov told Trend.
Kapital Bank was identified an authorized bank that would be involved in the process.
Throughout the month, 264,000 people were registered on the special website for refunding part of the VAT levied on payments at trade and catering facilities, of which 194,711 or 74 percent of registered users entered information about cashier’s checks into the system via e-cabinet on the website. In total, over 2.9 million cash checks of the citizens were registered on the website in the reporting month.
The amount of VAT to be returned for these checks made up 1.7 million manat ($1 million). Based on the approved checks, the amount of VAT worth 207,800 manat ($122,240) was returned and placed into the virtual wallet in the consumers’ e-cabinet, and the remaining amount of VAT is pending for the return date.
Moreover, the deadline was set for filing tax returns and paying taxes in connection with the special quarantine regime (from March 31 through May 31, 2020). For taxpayers in areas of limited activity, the deadline for submission was extended until May 31, 2020.
By mid-May, taxpayer service centers in Azerbaijan resumed their activities with a corresponding ban on receiving the applicants at the centers without medical masks.
In May 2020, the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan transferred 348.2 million manat ($204.8 million) to the state budget, which is 1.9 percent more than in the same period last year. The amount of customs duties amounted to 71 million manat ($41.7 million) or 20.4 percent of all revenues, VAT - 263.45 million manat or $154.9 million (75.6 percent), excise taxes - 10.6 million manat or $6.2 million (3.1 percent), and road tax - 3 million manat or $1.7 million (0.9 percent).
The share of VAT revenues increased over the year by 7.6 percent due to 2.8-percent reduction in the excise share, the revenues from customs duties this month decreased by 20.3 percent, from VAT - increased by 15.2 percent, from excise taxes – plunged by almost half compared to May 2019, while revenues from the road tax decreased by 15.2 percent.