Government regulates controlling revenues and remittances: BPA

INA-  Baghdad


The Border Ports Authority BPA clarified on Sunday the mechanism applied to impose customs duties and tariffs on containers of goods and gold entering Iraq under the decisions of the Cabinet, noting that these decisions come within the government's procedures to tighten control over revenues and financial transfers.
 
Major General Omar Al-Waeli told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "Under the direct patronage of Prime Minister, Engineer Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, a decision was issued by the Cabinet No. 23672 of 2023 to support the commercial process in Iraq and regulate the import process, by imposing customs tariffs because of its importance in providing financial revenues to the state treasury and in order to simplify procedures for importers through our Federal Ports."
 
 
 He added that the decision included the following:
 
1. The customs fee for a (20) feet size container shall be two million dinars, and for a size of 40 feet 3 million dinars.
 
2. The Customs Duty of fragmented goods without a container shall be according to the approved customs duty amounts.
 
3. Import license suspended.

4. Obliging the General Authority of Iraqi Customs‎ to accept the certificate of origin and the invoice issued by the Chambers of Commerce based on the national project of the electronic certificate of issuance system (QR) to facilitate procedures and ensure their validity.
 
 
5. The percentage of the additional customs duty for tobacco and cigarettes has been amended to be (20%) while the customs tariff rate is (10%).
 
 
6. Obliging the General Authority of Iraqi Customs to match the coordinator code for the goods entering with the coordinator code on SWIFT on the transfer platform at the Central Bank of Iraq, and it applies as a start to (phones, cigarettes and cars).
 

7. Customs Authority shall match the coordinator code for the transfer issued by Iraq with the imported goods code for the above three commodities and ask the importer to prove the legality of the financing, if it is from other sources outside Iraq.

8. The decision gave importers of goods (phones, cigarettes and cars) a period of one month to correct the customs and legal status of their goods, after which joint committees of the relevant authorities would be formed to investigate and inspect stores, shops and roads that contain violating goods and deal with them in accordance with the Customs Law Anti-money Laundering Law.

He continued that, as for imported gold, the Cabinet Resolution No. (23671) of 2023 was issued as follows:
 
 
1. The importer of gold shall be a company officially registered in the Companies Registration Department and shall be allowed to transfer abroad.
 
 
 
2. Allowing the import of gold through air ports exclusively and customs duty shall be set by the customs authority, the imports shall be examined and labeled by the Federal Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control.
 
 
3. The duties and charges for importing gold are determined as follows:
 
a- Raw gold and bullion, the examination fees for the quantities of imported gold shall be 50,000 dinars per kilogram, and 100,000 dinars shall be collected customs duties for each kilogram. 
 
b- Gold jewelry, an amount of 250 thousand dinars shall be collected customs duties for each kilogram and 50 thousand dinars for examination fees.

c- Amending the controls for the reprocessing of gold and its re-export outside Iraq.

d- Gold imported or exported contrary to the aforementioned regulations is considered contrary to the law and dealt with in accordance with the Customs Law No. (23) of 2018 as amended and the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law No. 39 of 2015, joint teams of investigation officers in customs, the National Security Service and the Directorate of Organized Crime shall be formed to investigate and inspect imported or exported gold that violate laws. 


"The Border Ports Authority, as the supervisory authority over the work of the departments operating at the border ports, is directly following up on the implementation to achieve the desired objectives of the decision, which is one of many steps taken by the government to tighten control over revenues and financial transfers," he concluded.