Ministry of Finance confirms inability to execute presidential decree on excise stamps

Baku/30.11.21/Turan: Orhan Ismailov, the owner of the Ganja-based commercial company Finest Tobacco, told Turan that he could not sell goods imported from Belarus because the Ministry of Finance refused to provide him with excise stamps required for selling cigarettes. 

Note that his company appealed to the Ministry of Finance, personally to Minister Samir Sharifov, on December 23, 2020. The Ministry of Finance is authorized to issue excise stamps for commercial businesses. The Ministry of Finance informed that the stamps were not issued due to the absence of the conciliation protocol from the State Tax Service, without which the order for excise stamps cannot be fulfilled.

it should be added that Turan Agency got an answer to its appeal to the Ministry of Finance due to the complaint of the businessman Orhan Ismailov. In the official letter, the head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Finance, Mais Piriyev, reminded that the presidential decree of December 20, 2018 entrusted the State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy to produce and issue excise stamps to companies. But until this process is legally regulated, the said duty is entrusted to the Ministry of Finance which should agree the issuance of excise stamps with the Ministry of Economy through drawing up a conciliation protocol.

The letter ends with the words: "please take into consideration".

Turan thanks the Ministry of Finance for its response, in which this agency reminded about the bureaucratic procedure for businessmen to obtain excise stamps. However, for the development of business, Orkhan Ismailov does not need information about the procedures, especially as he knows about them from his bitter practice, but a solution to a specific problem, entirely dependent on the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Service.

Turan reminds the government agencies that their duty is not to send out letters informing them of the discrepancies between the various Ministries, but to solve these shortcomings which worsen the already difficult situation in the Azerbaijani business.

Why do some Azerbaijani companies get excise stamps and can fill the country's market with imported cigarettes without competitors, jacking up their prices without caring about the quality of the products they sell? And a company from Ganja which offers quality products suffers losses unable to operate due to the inability of the two Ministries to solve domestic problems?

Ismayilov believes that by refusing to issue excise stamps to his company for a far-fetched reason, the Ministry of Finance fulfills the order of a major Azerbaijani monopolist in the sale of tobacco products. The monopoly company Tabaterra is affiliated with Milli Majlis deputy Jafanshir Feyziev. 

In a telephone conversation between Ismayilov and Azer Suleymanov, head of the State Tax Service's main department for control over circulation of excise goods on November 22, 2021, it was reported to the businessman that the company he heads is operating in the secret commercial field of the tobacco monopoly. The businessman was requested to make a voluntary statement that he violated the tax legislation although the tax inspection revealed no violations in Finest Tobacco. The tax officials do not want to officially inform the Ministry of Finance that there were no violations in the company's operations. And due to failure to issue a positive summary from the tax authorities, the Ministry of Finance does not issue excise stamps to Ismailov. In so doing, the activity of competitive companies which are objectionable for the monopolist is blocked which, in turn. leads to rise in prices on the consumer market and decrease in the quality of goods sold. -0-