Tiraspol, January 8. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. According to preliminary estimates, the new norm of the Customs Code of the Republic of Moldova, introduced on January 1, requiring Pridnestrovian importers to pay duties to the Moldovan budget, will lead to losses of more than $5 million a year. This figure was announced today at a meeting of the PMR Security Council, which was convened by President Vadim Krasnoselsky.
The greatest losses in case of payment of customs duties are expected for such items as milk, butter, cheeses, eggs, sugar, pasta, confectionery, as well as fiberglass, glass products, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and video equipment.
According to members of the Security Council, what is happening cannot be called anything other than robbery.
“Until now, the Moldovan side has not clarified the situation. We don’t know what product groups duties have been introduced on, how this mechanism will work, where these funds will go when collecting duties,” Vadim Krasnoselsky noted.
He recalled that customs and tax fees should go to the local budget, that is, in any case, this money must be returned to Pridnestrovie.
As noted at the meeting, this is not the first measure of sanctions pressure on the PMR from Moldova.
According to the Chairman of the Government of the Republic, Alexander Rosenberg, Pridnestrovian exporters and importers today are forced to pay for customs clearance of goods in the Republic of Moldova. Because of this, additional costs fell on Pridnestrovian enterprises - 260-300 thousand dollars per month. That is, up to $3.5 million per year.
The Moldavian Metallurgical Plant and the Rybnitsa Cement Plant are being unreasonably charged for environmental pollution. Pridnestrovian producers of alcoholic beverages – KVINT and “Buket Moldavii” – faced pressure from Moldovan tax authorities.
The export of goods from the “Elektromash”, as well as “Moldavizolit”, “Potential” and “Pribor”, is still blocked. The suspension of the activities of the last three enterprises has already led to a reduction in tax revenues to the PMR budget by 1.5 million rubles per month (over the year this will amount to more than a million dollars).
That is, at least eight large Pridnestrovian industrial enterprises faced one or another serious restrictions. And if this practice continues, then only here the republic’s budget will lose an additional 27 million rubles every month, that is, more than 1.5 million dollars (and about 20 million dollars per year).
Economic pressure from Moldova has already affected foreign trade indicators. At the Security Council meeting it was noted: over the 11 months of 2023, the export of Pridnestrovian products (excluding electricity) decreased by 12%. Four groups of exported goods: metal and metal products, products of the light, engineering and chemical industries - together make up half of all supplies. The total volume of them decreased last year by almost 19%.
Let us recall that Moldova began to increase pressure on the foreign economic activity of Pridnestrovie in February 2022. Then the PMR was faced, in particular, with restrictions on the import of medicines, plant protection products, and then medical equipment. Because of this, prices for a number of socially important medicines have increased in Pridnestrovian pharmacies, and farmers are faced with rising production costs.
Since the summer of this year, we can already talk about a second, even broader stage of Moldavian sanctions. Not only Pridnestrovian importers, but also exporters began to experience increasing difficulties. On August 10, Chisinau, violating the agreements with Tiraspol reached back in 2014, introduced the already mentioned fee for customs clearance of imports and exports of the PMR (0.4% of the customs value of imports and 0.1% of exports).
Around the same time, the Republic of Moldova has been restricting export supplies of “Elektromash”, “Moldavizolit” and “Potential”. Especially to the eastern markets, declaring that the goods of the three Pridnestrovian factories are dual-use products. Although even Romanian experts confirmed that this is not true.
The current introduction of customs duties is a continuation of this new stage of economic pressure of Moldova. It is becoming more and more systematic, and it can only be stopped, apparently, by serious intervention by international mediators in negotiations between Tiraspol and Chisinau.
