The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has opened a case against the Federal Customs Service "in the defense of competitiveness," concerning allegations that the customs service was not charging import duties on Apple iPads, while it was collecting the tariff from other manufacturers of tablet computers.
The customs service was supposedly charging a 5 percent duty to other manufacturers of tablets that had built-in GPS receivers as if their units were navigation devices, while the iPad's GPS receivers were being treated merely as computers not liable for import tariffs.
However, the question may now be moot. Last week the government approved a 10 percent import duty on all computers, except notebooks, due to a drop in production demand for locally made computers.
(MT)