Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Tax Fines Are Met With Protest by the Dealers

October 28, 2010
Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

“This is a raid and nothing more. The Tax inspection issues fine with no excuse. It has become a rule of government. Instead of helping, they are raiding us. Every morning starts with these kinds of surprises in our country. This time we were imposed fine and nobody tells us why. They are killing us slowly, by cutting the breathe supplies,” – dealers of trade center “Gvirabi” (Tunnel) are protesting against the fines imposed on them by tax inspection.

“To be honest, we don’t know why the fines were imposed. The fact is that they don’t tell the reason. They say that we need to present the invoice of goods. Where from?! These goods that we trade with are either bought from Tbilisi markets or Lilo. Nobody will give us such document since they don’t have it. We think it is just a simple excuse called fine. This is not a good sign. The same happened in relation with gold exchange. First, it started with fines and ultimately they were all sequestrated,” – stated individual dealer Lali Kuprashvili.

Tax inspection sequestrated several so-called gold exchange centers approximately a year ago in Kutaisi. Human right defending organizations stated that the process of sequestrating went beyond the legislation and government gravely violated the rights of dealers at that time.

“Lately, generally, the numbers of appeals of dealers increased that basically was caused by the fines imposed on them by the tax department. Dealers are submitting complaints on the violations of their human rights and ask for legal assistance from us. As a result of recent fining in Kutaisi, the goods under their ownership were sequestrated. It should be noted that tax department is acting wrong. If the dealer has filled in the invoice correctly and no hidden goods are discovered, such fining should not take place. This is a grave interference in the activity of dealers, more – their destruction,” – stated Young Lawyer’s Association Kutaisi branch.

Human right defending organizations talk about rude attitude of tax department organs towards the dealers: “There is an instruction issued by the Finance Ministry where it is directly indicated that when the tax inspector inspects the dealer, he is obligated to present an order, introduce himself and answer all his questions. Often this obligation is neglected. Tax inspector happens to be rude and ultimately, the dealer is damaged.”

As it was found out, trade center “Gvirabi” employees are concerned with similar problems. They state that despite meeting with the representatives of tax department, nothing was cleared. On their questions: how are the dealers fined; when is the last term for paying the fine and etc. were not answered by Kutaisi Regional Renter of Revenue Service.

News