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Series of steps
Journalist Ali Abboud writes:
The businessmen have not and will not stop attacking any legislation or decision that would restrict their permanent slogan (laissez-faire, let it pass) or reduce their obscene profits, on the contrary they will not hesitate to threaten to leave the country, or to stop importing and supplying if one day the government does not respond to their growing demands.
They noted that merchants are against automation and invoicing, against submitting tax data, against electronic platforms, against insurance for workers, against supplying 15% of imports to Syria in exchange for the convenience of the Central Bank, and against their opposition to all restrictions on liberal theories (laissez-faire, laissez-faire).
Merchants point their arrows at (indicative prices) and describe them as (Syrian heresy), and the target is clear, as they made clear to the relevant government agencies: We will not reveal our true values. Imports!
Long-term dilemma
The process of determining import values and volumes has been bogged down since the 1990s, with no Minister of Economy or Finance able to implement a mechanism requiring businesses to submit true customs data on imports and exports or to determine that import data were and are manipulated to evade paying taxes and duties, with their actual volumes being and are lower than those disclosed in the data, while the opposite is true for exports, as the figures in their data are higher than the actual sources, with the aim of benefiting from foreign exchange earnings.
Although the solution was and still is automation of customs work, merchants have resisted automation and have successfully blocked its application with various excuses, because they are not ready to disclose the volume and value of their imports and exports, and they have been waging a campaign. So why?
What are the alternatives to indicative prices?
From the perspective of the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for taxing merchants’ real profits, not fictitious profits, especially after the former Minister of Finance revealed that big merchants were evading taxes, the indicative prices are the only basis. At present, there is an option to relatively verify the true cost and value of imports, and the indicative prices that merchants see (Syrian innovation) are unparalleled in the world!
The Treasury occasionally modifies the indicative prices, the last being in May and at the end of July last year, which included the prices of some fabrics, sheep, calves, and razors and blades. Each revision is reviewed by the Treasury and new materials are added, and each revision causes opposition and rejection from traders!
I have a question!
In the absence of automation and billing, is there an alternative to indicative pricing?
Some members of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, with the support of all Syrian businessmen, believe that (everything said about indicative prices is unconvincing because they are a local invention and a Syrian innovation and are not applied globally).
Because in their view this is (Syrian heresy), the merchant asked to cancel and use the real price and invoice provided by the importer. If there are doubts about these invoices and financial statements, they can. Verify through the various methods you know, according to the confirmation of the merchant and customs, it’s easy to get it done!
So, if customs can provide traders with true prices, why oppose automating invoices and customs, thereby eliminating indicative prices altogether?
Why Hide Bank Documents?
Merchants consider this heresy, but customs brokers consider it a necessary and irreplaceable measure, since merchants refuse to submit bank documents showing the value of financial transfers paid to supplying companies, so the question is: why do merchants hide bank documents issued by customs that prove the value of their imported goods?
An alternative to indicative prices is to provide bank documents instead of describing them as (Syrian innovations), which we are sure no merchant will do because he is not prepared to disclose the prices of his imports, which means selling goods at Syrian market prices that are much lower than their selling prices, so no merchant will give up the monopoly on prices and materials!
It is shocking that merchants always submit data and invoices to customs at their own risk, and these invoices are always false invoices, whose values are manipulated in line with the supplying companies. Merchants’ statements over the past decades are not accurate and inaccurate. If they are not, they refuse to show them, just like they refuse to provide bank documents showing the real value of their imports!
No customs broker representative
Since the Chamber of Commerce is represented on the Price Guidance Committee, why don’t they oppose the new amendments within the committee itself, instead of attacking them at regular meetings or in the media?
Why did the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce not propose alternatives to the abolition of the Commission, such as bank documentation and automated customs work, instead of describing it as unparalleled in the world (Syrian heresy)?
Furthermore, why does the Indicative Pricing Committee not include representatives of the Customs Brokers Association, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy and Internal Trade, the Central Bank, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Chamber of Agriculture?
Customs brokers are in the best position to discuss and expose the tampering of merchant data, so their presence on the committee is very necessary.
Treasury Rights
Whatever one may say about indicative prices, describing them as heresy, the only goal of attacking them is to continue tax evasion, since merchants refuse to offer the alternative of submitting bank documents with the value of their imported goods, indicative prices remain the only measure for the Treasury to protect the rights of the public treasury from the profits of merchants, and cannot trust to false data or real data whose figures have been tampered with and receivables.
If the indicative prices need to be adjusted regularly due to the increase in global production, transportation, supply and other costs, the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce in the Pricing Committee can make suggestions to it at any time to ensure the rationality of the indicative prices and the rights of merchants and the treasury.
in conclusion:
We have previously proposed to the Ministry of Economy to create data for merchants through an electronic platform, which includes a list of their imports and tracks them from the moment they arrive at ports, warehouses and markets, and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to automate the work of merchants, from customs data to issuing sales invoices, whether wholesale or retail, to submitting tax data for the entire annual business, etc. Automation and billing are the fundamental solutions to pricing and tax evasion.
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