With the Blame on Others

In order to address the complaints of the management of major supermarket chains a commission should be set up, including representatives of retailers themselves, as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Economy, Taxes and Finance and the State Customs Committee, said the former head of the Ministry of Finance, Chairman of the international association of economic research Economics Fikret Yusifov.

As he stated, the cause of unprofitable retail properties is not a value-added tax, but the informal and often inefficient spending, affecting the value of the goods. In addition, the trade should be free from various intermediaries, each of which raises the price at least by 10%, which affects the cost.

In addition, the store owners are wrong, saying that allegedly the December devaluation of the manat led to an increase in the cost of products sold in supermarkets and to a decrease in the turnover. "Firstly, after the devaluation increase has been observed in the turnover of supermarkets in the national currency, and secondly, in the presence of supporting documents, goods sold to the population are subject to the zero VAT," said the expert.

Recall, on April 18, the owners of chain stores Araz, Neptun, Bolmart, Bizim Market, Fresco, Sebet and Macromart appealed to the head of the Ministry of Economy Shahin Mustafayev with the aim to apply a zero VAT rate to the local socially important foods, including milk, flour, eggs, rice, meat, fish, oil, fruit, vegetables and baby nutrition.

On the morning of April 19 the Minister received a delegation of the supermarkets, promising to consider and positively solve the issue of reducing the tax burden or the use of tax incentives. The issue of tax holidays was not considered. --17D-