Business ombud tries to relieve pet food importers of 3 bln rbl taxes

MOSCOW, Mar 25 (PRIME) -- Business ombudsman Boris Titov has asked Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev to put an end to a conflict of laws that would result in importers of pet food having to pay 2.5 billion rubles of additional ungrounded taxes, according to Titov’s letter to Gordeyev seen by PRIME on Monday.

Titov said that the Finance Ministry’s order issued on December 29, 2018 says that fodder additives should be taxed at the usual value-added tax (VAT) rate of 20%, while previous rulings of the ministry say that the products may be taxed at 10% if they are classified as pet and livestock food.

The government issued a ruling on December 6, 2018 eliminating the conflict and sets VAT at 10% for fodder additives, but the ruling comes in force only from April 1, 2019, and importers of pet food may have problems until then, the letter read.

“According to the requests sent by businessmen to the ombudsman, the Federal Tax Service is currently analyzing the import deals on fodder additives and studies a retrospective accrual of up to 2.5 billion rubles of VAT, which trigger critical losses for the importers,” Titov said, asking Gordeyev to initiate intra-governmental procedures to relieve businessmen from the tax.

(63.7705 rubles – U.S. $1)

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