Duties on registration of IMEI codes of mobiles to be revised in Azerbaijan

By  Trend

Duties on registration of IMEI codes of mobile phones will be revised in Azerbaijan, a source in the telecommunication market of the country told Trend.

The source told Trend that, the work in this direction intensified after the relevant decree of the head of state on amendments to the law "on state duty".

"This refers to the application of a differentiated method of registration of mobile phones. The relevant agency of the country was instructed to conduct research on this method. We believe that by the end of the year the results of the research will be announced," the source said.

The differentiated method of mobile phone registration involves the classification of duties by mobile phones of high, medium and low price segment, which will allow to determine a fixed duty for mobile phones depending on their cost and model. For example, the duty on expensive iPhone models will be different from the duty on phones of cheaper price segment.

"It is possible that the process of managing the differentiation will be more difficult, but it can be done. The only confusing thing is that the tariffs will be updated annually. As you know, new phones appear on the market during the year, and it is still unknown how they will be subjected to duties. Although it is possible, for example, to apply a system of categorization, that is, to define several categories and, accordingly, to add a particular phone model to them and then regulate the tariff for duty, depending on how the price changes on the market. For example, the cost of iPhone 7 is reduced after release of iPhone X. Accordingly, this model can be lowered by two categories. However, this is only a vision of how this process can be regulated," the source said.

This issue is a subject of discussion yet, and if it is decided to apply it in practice, as the source said earlier, it can be implemented technically, using the advantages of the system of registration of IMEI codes of mobile phones, which allow for determining the models and parameters of mobile devices.