VAT for flour introduced. Deputies approve bill in third reading

The deputies of the Зarliament adopted in the third reading a bill on the introduction of VAT on the import of flour and grain. The decision was made today at its meeting.

Two years ago, when Kyrgyzstan joined the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Economy Ministry proposed to exempt grain imports from VAT to support domestic flour mills. In this case, after processing the grain into flour, entrepreneurs had to pay VAT. However, when discussing the bill in Parliament, an amendment was made that flour is also exempt from VAT.

Due to the cancellation of VAT on flour, the budget of Kyrgyzstan for two years had lost more than 1 billion soms. This was previously reported by Deputy Minister of Economics Bakkeldi Tyumenbaev.

According to him, initially the agency offered to abolish VAT only on grain imports, but during the discussion, a proposal to abolish VAT on flour was suggested and supported.

For 2014, the shortfall was 635 million soms, and in 2015 — 500 million soms.

The bill was supported today by 99 deputies,  two were against.