Baku, Azerbaijan, May 16
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan may change the regulation for duty-free regulation of goods, purchased in foreign online shops, Uzbek media reported on May 16.
The changes are provided by the draft of the presidential decree “On measures to ensure control and registration of goods entering the territory of Uzbekistan for individual entities through international post and courier shipments”, which is currently being considered.
The State Customs Committee of Uzbekistan proposes to set the limit for individual duty-free goods import at $1,000 and 30 kilograms in three months.
Citizens of Uzbekistan are currently eligible to get up to $1,000 worth goods in one calendar month without paying additional duties.
The State Customs Committee is also planning to implement a unified customs fee of 30 percent of the part of cost exceeding $1,000 limit. E.g., if cost of a good is $1,200, 30 percent of $200 will have to be paid.
The Committee is also going to implement a $5 fee for every kilogram of weight exceeding $30 limit. E.g., additional $25 will have to be paid for a shipment weighing 35 kilograms, even if its cost is less than $1,000.
The proposed changes to the regulations caused active discussion in social networks. People noted that the changes will lead to decrease of foreign online purchases, which were becoming increasingly popular in Uzbekistan. The online shops became highly popular due to the prices there being considerably lower than in Uzbekistan.
Reasoning of the State Customs Committee is also understandable though. Numerous groups appeared in social networks offering citizens of Uzbekistan to buy various goods from foreign online shops only by sending links to the item being sold and making 30-50 percent of the payment in advance.
Such groups often involve relatives and friends when ordering goods from online shops to bypass customs limits, thus violating the regulations.
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