Increased State Duty Proposed for Temporary Vehicle Storage

The newspaper "Past" reports that the State Revenue Committee is proposing amendments to the Law on State Duties. The expected outcome of the adoption of this project is to ensure that the customs authority conducts the release of vehicles from the customs territory in accordance with the throughput capacity designated for the customs administration area.

The necessity for amending the Law on State Duties, according to the SRC, is linked to addressing issues that have arisen during the application of the current rates of state duty imposed for the temporary storage of goods.

Specifically, due to the currently applied rates, there is a backlog of imported vehicles in the temporary storage warehouse located within the territory of the North Customs Administration of Armenia (Gyumri Customs Center). This situation occurs because the frequency at which newly imported vehicles arrive at the customs zone exceeds the frequency with which vehicles can be released from the temporary storage areas by the customs authorities.

The SRC believes this is due to the relatively low level of the state duty charged for the temporary storage of vehicles compared to the fees charged for parking vehicles in other nearby facilities. Considering all of this, the SRC proposes to establish higher (comparable) rates for the state duty imposed by customs authorities for the temporary storage of vehicles.

The draft is currently under active discussion in the public arena, "earning" dissenting voices.

For more details, refer to today’s issue of the newspaper.