Tiraspol, 22 March. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The State Customs Committee (SCC) states that the special duty for some import products was introduced following the government's decree in May 2015. This measure aimed to support domestic manufacturers, who asked the government to impose protective duties for maintaining the competitive power of their products in the Pridnestrovian market.
According to the SCC press service, a list of such products was made up by the government solely based on their import-substitution potential. The list includes milk, butter, cheese and cottage cheese, bread, biscuit, various non-alcohol carbonated drinks — all that are successfully produced by domestic manufacturers and that are often of better quality than import products.
In compliance with subparagraph д) of Article 8 of the law «On customs tariff», special preferences apply to the goods that are subject to the special duty, but that are used by domestic enterprises as raw material for manufacturing their own products. Thus, the government of the PMR took steps to create favourable environment for domestic enterprises and the implementation of an import-substitution programme, which is part of Pridnestrovie's economic security strategy.
According to customs data, the country’s coffers have received about 23 million roubles since the special duty was introduced, which is equal to 173-rouble lump-sum payment for each of 135,000 Pridnestrovian pensioners.
The State Customs Committee draws citizens' attention to the key issue on customs duties: all payments collected by customs bodies, including special duties, go to the country's consolidated budget and are a funding source for such social budget items as public sector wages and pensioners' allowances.
