Nadezhda Azarova, a member of the Duma’s budget committee, is determined to make the Russian Tax Code perfect.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Importers Offered to Pay It All at Once
The Duma has offered importers to provide the single security for all trade operations. The idea can be found in amendments to the Tax Code that the parliament has endorsed in the first reading. The plan’s drafters are convinced that their plan will help importers a great deal, but customs officials seem to oppose the single type of payment guarantees.
The Russian State Duma on Monday approved of amendments to the Tax Code one of which describes a new type of guarantees for paying customs duties and import VAT – the complex security. There are currently four kinds of securities in Russia – goods or money deposit, a bank guarantee or a collateral. The amount of the guarantee depends on the value of items being declared. There are also guarantees for other activities of importers.
Nadezhda Azarova, one of the bill’s drafters, says a new sort of guarantees will enable importers to curry out several customs operations at a time. The single guarantee is hitched to another amendment which imposes joint responsibility of a customs broker and the declaring party on paying the duties. The bill cracks down on evasion of tax duties and late payments.
Independent experts fear that the new rules may have a negative effect on customs brokers. “Full responsibility for default in payment will rest with them,” says Sergey Butko, an expert from the Tsoll.ru customs brokers.
The Federal Customs Service told Kommersant on Sunday they are not sure that the new type of guarantees will make customs’ work more efficient. The bill’s drafters note, meanwhile, that this particular idea might as well be thrown out of the amendments presented for the second reading at the parliament in late April.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 12, 2007
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