Tiraspol Retaliatory Measures against Chisinau: New Duties and Tariffs

The “government” of the so-called “PMR” considered and adopted certain bills aimed at increasing the region’s budget revenues. The paper adopted today provides for the prolongation of the simplified registration of individuals and legal entities cultivating agricultural lands north-east of the Tiraspol-Camenca highway and for the export of agricultural products produced on these lands by individuals and legal entities from the villages of Doroțcaia, Pîrîta, Coșnița, Pohrebea, Cocieri, Molovata Nouă, Vasilievca. At the same time, customs clearance of goods transported by such entities would be carried out in accordance with the Transnistrian Customs Code requirements. Earlier this category of land managers enjoyed a special customs procedure regime. Now the approach is unified. The special customs procedure would also be terminated for the goods transported by land users in Dubăsari district. Previously, land tenants in this district did not pay customs duties and taxes when moving their produce across the border. The mechanism of goods movement would be changed for land users from Dubăsari district. In addition, they decided to terminate the privilege for temporary import of vehicles registered in Moldova. Now owners of cars with Moldovan license plates permanently residing on the territory of Doroțcaia will pay a vignette fee. Among other things, the Transnistrian “government” revised the approach of setting the ceiling levels of tariffs for public utilities in 2024. From 1 February, legal entities located in Transnistria under the jurisdiction of Moldova will be subject to tariffs costs set in Moldova. The Moldovan Reintegration Bureau has not yet commented on this information. The Customs Service recalled that from 1 January 2024, with the entry into force of the Moldovan Customs Code, all economic agents, including those from the Transnistrian region, would pay customs tax on general principles. The Customs Code No. 95/2021 replaces the Customs Code No. 1149/2000, the Law on Customs Tariff and the Law on the Procedure of Import and Export of Goods from the Territory of the Republic of Moldova by Natural Persons. Thus, the privileges introduced by Article 4, paragraph (6) of Law No. 1380/1997 with regard to customs duty were cancelled.