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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    New customs import tariff in Iraq, Kurdistan exempt

    Rocky
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    • Post n°1

    New customs import tariff in Iraq, Kurdistan exempt Empty New customs import tariff in Iraq, Kurdistan exempt

    Post by Rocky Fri 19 Feb 2016, 9:30 am

    New customs import tariff in Iraq, Kurdistan exempt
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    Long truck queues at the Habur border gate between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: DHA
    BASRA,— A new customs tariff increase recently went into effect in Iraq, slowing business at the country’s main port of Umm Qasr in Basra and choking the port with thousands of uncollected cargo containers.
    Umm Qasr is already one of the most expensive ports in the world for shippers, and importing firms complain of being asked for heavy bribes, poor service and high handling costs and exorbitant port fees – up to eight times that in others ports around the world.
    The new tariff, which went into effect on January 19, imposes a 30 percent customs duty on imported goods coming through Iraq’s crossing points, exempting the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

    “The customs tariff on imported goods in Kurdistan is five percent, while it is 30 percent in Basra. So it’s six times higher. It is too high and the negative consequences of this will fall on the citizen who will bear the brunt of the taxes paid by the trader – traders will apply the tax they pay to the price of the goods. Consumers will be the only ones affected by this. I think there has to be a fair application of this,” said Anmar al-Safi, spokesman for the General Company for Ports of Iraq.
    Safi said the new tariff law, which was approved by the Council of Ministers, impacts all imported goods, including foodstuff, and criticised the government for not applying the law to the Kurdish region.
    “The new tariff was imposed on all kinds of goods without exemption. This is unjust because essential goods and foodstuffs must be excluded from these tariffs. I think the one who issued this tariff and calculated it was unjust because he applied it to one area and left the other. Regrettably, I believe there is no authority over Kurdistan,” Safi said.
    Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq has been a semi-autonomous region since it was put under United Nations protection following the 1991 Gulf War. It compromises the three provinces of Erbil, the capital, Sulaimani and Dohuk.
    The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition and the subsequent political changes in post-Saddam Hussein’s Iraq led to the ratification of the new Iraqi constitution in 2005.
    The new constitution stipulates Iraqi Kurdistan is a federal entity recognised by Iraq and the United Nations.
    Since then Kurdistan has behaved independently in most of its issues, which angers the central government, especially in sensitive issues like granting oil deals to foreign companies, and their demands to include the oil rich city of Kirkuk to their region.
    Safi said goods containers have piled up at ports as a number of traders refrain from paying taxes, thus hampering the unloading process of vessels calling at port.
    “Some are saying Iraqi ports are empty and vessels and ships have stopped calling at them, but this is untrue. The port is full of vessels, but cargo containers have piled up. Ships continue to call at the port and unload their cargo, but containers sit idle with their goods on yards. There is now a case of overcrowding at Iraqi ports. We have many vessels waiting for yards to be emptied to enter and unload their cargo. There was in fact a disruption in the movement of goods in and out of the port and this in turn caused confusion and in consequence, it led to financial losses (due to traders declining to pay the customs tariff),” Safi said.
    Shatt al-Arab, a waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, empties into the Gulf below Iraq’s port city of Basra and is Iraq’s only shipping outlet.
    Iraq has only a sliver of coast, squeezed in between Iran and Kuwait. Umm Qasr, is one of four Iraqi commercial ports but it is the only deep water one. It handles 80 percent of the country’s imports, including grain for a huge public food ration program.

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