Car Importers Warn of Rising Costs Before Deadline

They announced that from now on, you can import right-hand drive vehicles on the condition that the steering wheel will be changed, and customs clearance will be at the price set for left-hand drive vehicles. However, such a thing does not exist. This was stated by car importer Armen Barseghyan in an interview with Tert.am.

Recall that the State Revenue Committee had announced that it would now be possible to import right-hand drive vehicles into Armenia only on the condition of changing their steering layout.

Barseghyan mentioned that he imported a vehicle, but the customs clearance turned out to be more expensive, as transportation and broker fees increased. “The broker is raising the prices daily. We had agreed that I would pay 15,000 drams for my documents, but now they want 30,000. And now the same job is done for 60,000. I don’t understand, is there no one who can supervise this?” said Armen Barseghyan.

He noted that due to delays in paperwork by the broker, he had to wait two days at the customs in Gyumri without any purpose and now has to pay 30,000 drams just to get his vehicle documents back.

“They told us that if you don’t manage to clear the vehicle by December 31 at 18:00, you will have to pay at the increased prices. However, they had announced that the deadline for the decision coming into effect on January 1 has been postponed until July 1, 2020,” said the importer.

He added that he expects a response from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as it turns out that the situation will not be as announced, and the car importers feel deceived.