Eurasian Customs Union

[armnuke]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Eurasian Union Opposes Armenian Car Tax

Sargis Harutyunyan
Հրապարակված է՝ 08.02.2016

Armenia collects a 20 percent tax from cars imported from Russia and other members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in breach of trade rules set by the Russian-led bloc, a senior EEU official said on Monday.

Tatyana Valovaya of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the bloc’s Moscow-based executive body, said Yerevan should have abolished value-added tax (VAT) for such cars when it formally joined the EEU in January 2015.

“The [founding] EEU treaty stipulates that the member states cannot use non-tariff protectionist barriers against each other. Nevertheless, we detect such barriers quite often,” Valovaya told reporters in a video conference from Moscow.

“There was such a barrier [for EEU car imports] in Kazakhstan and it was eliminated,” she said. “We have now found a similar barrier in Armenia.”

The Armenian Finance Ministry declined to comment on Valovaya’s claim or explain why VAT is still applied to EEU car imports.

Under Armenian law, companies or private individuals have to pay VAT, in addition to a 10 percent import duty, when they import vehicles from non-EEU states. The Armenian customs service also levies an environmental tax from second-hand cars manufactured 5 or more years ago.

Poghos Oghlukian, a self-employed car importer, claimed that the environmental tax rate is set much higher for vehicles imported from EEU states than other parts of the world, notably neighboring Georgia. This, he said, means that he now has to pay virtually the same amount of taxes for 10-year-old cars purchased in Georgia and Russia.

“Why did we join that union?” Oghlukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “In order to make some things easier here. But as things stand now, I’m better off importing cars from Georgia than taking a much longer trip to Russia”

Tigran Hovannisian, the chairman of the Armenian Union of Car Importers, also complained against the continuing collection of VAT from cars manufactured in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “It means they deceive us,” he said, referring to the Armenian government.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27539369.html

This is purely political to increase exports from Russia, and to hit the Georgian re-exporters. (which I don't mind)
It has been on year and they just woke up on this?
I prefer keeping the tax. It's not the right time to cut inflows into the government's budget and to encourage imports into Armenia, which comes at the expense of outflow of hard currency.

[Azad]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

^ Does anyone know if the law that has 0% tax on cars over 100k is still in effect in Armenia?

100k as in miles on the car and not the value of a car.

[Azad]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

I noticed the love affair for discounted Japanese cars being dumped in the Caucasus. Are they leftovers from the tsunami as in flooded cars? Do they glow in the dark?

[Shant03]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

100k as in miles on the car and not the value of a car.

$100k

[Azad]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

$100k

That is a weird law if it is true. If they can afford over $100k cars they sure can pay taxes. I can imagine it is an oligarch special.

[Artashes]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

I noticed the love affair for discounted Japanese cars being dumped in the Caucasus. Are they leftovers from the tsunami as in flooded cars? Do they glow in the dark?

Although I don't really know why, I can make a guess or two.
Japan's strict air pollution / car qualification standard, leaves the country with large number of excellent cars & engines that are not allowed to operate in Japan.
Gotta be savvy to operate in Japan to access. There has got to be a connect and someone from our side saw opportunity.
If maintained all are good for minimum 200,000 miles, or more.
Real deals to be had from Japan as far as car/truck/equipment goes.

[Azad]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Although I don't really know why, I can make a guess or two.

This will give you some idea

http://www.list.am/category/124

[armnuke]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

In the EEU, customs is collected in one account and it's split between the member states according to their percentage annual share. If I'm not mistaken, Armenian's is 1.13% of the total pool.
In 2015, Russian imports dropped significantly, because of the low Ruble.
Also, Russia stopped importing foodstuffs from the EU, US, and other countries. Hence, import in Russia dropped significantly, which resulted in much less customs tax collected in the common account.
That's the main cause. This resulted a shrink in Armenia's budget for the first time since independence.
To cover the deficit, Armenia borrowed money.
I expect this number to be lower for 2016 (unless something changed), because the Ruble further depreciated already, and Russia imposed additional sanctions on goods imported from Turkey.

For example


Russia's Medicine Imports Fall by Third in 2015

Russia imported medicine worth $6.8 billion last year, down 32.7 percent compared to 2014, the Federal Customs Service said in a statement Friday.
The import of drugs to Russia from outside the former Soviet Union dropped 32.9 percent to $6.7 billion. Imports into Russia from CIS countries were worth $119 million, 21 percent less than in 2014, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the volume of antibiotics imported into Russia decreased by 2.6 percent in 2015 to $84.2 million, according to the Federal Customs Service.
In December, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree limiting state purchases of foreign-made drugs.
According to the decree — aimed at reducing reliance on Western goods — foreign companies are banned from participating in tenders if there are at least two entries from Russia or members of the Eurasian Economic Union.

[Eddo211]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

In December, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree limiting state purchases of foreign-made drugs.
According to the decree — aimed at reducing reliance on Western goods —

No other country would do or say that, wow.
I agree though.......countries should always strive to be independent as much as possible.

[armnuke]

Re: Eurasian Customs Union

Percentage decrease in Russian imports in 2015 from different countries including Armenia