The Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Mirko Sarovic, recently met with the newly appointed Ambassador of Japan in our country, Hidjuki Sakamoto.
They discussed strengthening of economic cooperation between two countries and measures for the improvement of conditions for investment in BiH, and the announcement of BH minster attracted special attention.
“One of the focuses of the work of our ministry in the future period will be reduction of customs duties and compliance with other regional countries, and it is simply unacceptable that the import duty on vehicles in BiH amounts to 15 %, while it is 12 % in Serbia, and just 5 % in Montenegro. Moreover, we need to work on facilitating the import and registration of eco-vehicles, which is an issue that other countries are paying great attention to,” stated Minister Sarovic.
This announcement was gladly welcomed among importers of vehicles that are not coming from the EU, Turkey and Serbia. Namely, current regulations on imports of vehicles that are produced in the EU, Turkey and Serbia prescribe only 1 % for customs clearance, while vehicles from the rest of the world have to pay additional 15 % of customs duties.
Since customs duties are part of the base for paying VAT, thus vehicles produced in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Mexico, Russia, Morocco are by 20 % more expensive than the competition.
All models of Mazda are produced in Japan, then Toyota models RAV4, Landcruiser, Hilux, Prius… Popular models of Dacia – Dokker and Lodgy are produced in Morocco, a complete range of Lada cars is produced in Russia, the BMW X5 comes from the United States, Volkswagen Jetta from Mexico, Kia Rio, Kia Stonic, Hyundai Santa Fe from South Korea…
“We are considering the possibility of reducing customs duties on the import of eco-vehicles. The Ministry is planning to conduct an analysis and evaluation and then give their final opinion. The Council of Ministers of BiH will adopt the final decision on tariffs on our proposal,” said Marina Bakic, spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH.
It is clear in the information issued by the Ministry that reduced tariffs will refer only to ecological vehicles, i.e. electric cars and hybrids that are mostly produced in Japan, but they are too expensive for an average buyer from BiH.
Source: sarajevotimes
