No agreement on unified excise duties on tobacco, alcohol in Customs Union yet

According to the official, as a rule the countries participating in the integration try to establish coordinated parameters on excise duties in respect to critical commodities in order to avoid the import of similar products from the neighboring countries at lower rates under grey schemes. "Today there are no liabilities between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in respect to unified or harmonized excise duties in the Customs Union. Nevertheless, the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty which is under development and due to come into force in 2015 envisages in its part on taxation a norm that the member states take steps in harmonization of excise duties. If this wording of the agreement is adopted, the three states will have to define the parameters of such harmonization," Dmitry Kiyko said, BelTA reports.

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