Union of IT Enterprises presented a number of proposals to change Armenian customs legislation

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) presented a number of proposals to change customs legislation of Armenia.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a round table with the participation of representatives of the private sector and the State Revenue Committee of Armenia in Yerevan today, Executive Director of UITE Karen Vardanyan informed that the proposals are meant to accelerate the process of customs clearances and solve problems in the sphere of import, export, reexport and international trade barter.

“During customs clearance of import from China, Near East and South-Eastern Asia countries, the customs service often considers invoices insufficient and is guided by fair values, which often exceed the market ones”, Karen Vardanyan stated, stressing that large volume of production is imported from the given countries, which is produced by subdivisions of world famous companies in the given country, and distrust for invoices damages Armenia’s investment attractiveness.

UITE suggests increasing from today’s 5% up to 25% the specific weight of customs import value estimation basing on invoice, facilitate the requirements of customs legislation concerning invoices and implement a mechanism to apply electronic invoices. “Realizing the fact that customs employees have their own not unfounded explanations for applying fair values, one should elaborate flexible and impartial mechanisms for their estimation”, Karen Vardanyan stated.

He also proposed to free from import customs value estimation the companies, which realize examinations and testing of new IT equipment.

Touching upon the problem of IT equipment export, Karen Vardanyan stated that the larger part of IT production export is forced to undergo long expertise by a special commission, which should reveal whether the good has double purpose. UITE suggests accelerating the process of expertise, attracting experts, who would assess the good right at the customs.

“Acute problems occur also during reexport of equipment”, Karen Vardanyan stated, noting that a number of Armenian companies, which have acquired the status of regional distributors, while reexporting temporarily imported equipment to Georgia, Turkey and Iran, have to register it as their own export, which very much delays realization of regional operations and casts doubt on practical application of “temporary import”, “temporary import for processing”, “temporary export” and “temporary export for processing” customs treatments.

Besides the above-mentioned problems, Karen Vardanyan also noted the misunderstanding, which companies face, while purchasing equipment abroad. “If the imported equipment is defective, the seller company sends new equipment to the buyer, and the buyer sends the defective one back to the seller, but the customs service considers the defective equipment to be export, and collects tax duty for the second time for delivery of the equipment in good order”, Karen Vardanyan stated. 

“Such methods of customs work have absolutely no prospects”, Executive Director of UITE stated, noting that “despite the wish, the state, nevertheless, is not yet a reliable business-partner for the IT-sector”.

Head of Customs Control Department of the State Revenue Committee under the Armenian government Albert Harutyunyan admitted that there are legislative oversights and expressed a wish to assist the reforms.

Touching, in particular, upon application of fair values by the customs service, Albert Harutyunyan stated that this is a forced measure, since many invoices do not meet the necessary requirements and are often filled in by mediators, who try to conceal the real cost of the deals. Albert Harutyunyan expressed also distrust for electronic declarations, noting that there is no proper regulation in this sphere.

Following the results of the round table, a decision was made to send the proposals of UITE to the Ministry of Economy, the State Revenue Committee and Information Technologies Development Support National Council.