Rusudan Kemuralia, Deputy Finance Minister. (Photo: Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch – The tax pressure will be relieved, sanctions liberalized and the administration will be simplified, the government has decided.

Rusudan Kemularia, Deputy Finance Minister, held a briefing on Monday regarding the plan.

She presented amendments to the tax code, which will mean that a person will be exempted from paying fees for land, if the land is located near the occupied territories and the person cannot use this land. It will be up to the local authorities to confirm that conditions are met and issue a document confirming this.

Accrued and unpaid property taxes, penalties and fines for property which are on the territories defined by law on occupied territories, will be canceled.

In case of fulfilling property declaration responsibility for agricultural lands until January 1 2014, individuals will be exempted from fines defined by Georgia’s tax code.

In case someone avoids control or secretly transfers goods past the customs border, thereby avoiding monitoring of goods valued up to 3 000 lari, with the new rules officers will have the choice of issuing a warning instead of fining the violator.

Another change is that there will no longer be intervention into a person’s bank account or money transfer because of an outstanding debt due to accrued taxes or fines, which is defined by the tax code. The same will also be the case for debt due to payment of court expenses.

A bill is already initiated in parliament, but the reviewing of it has not yet begun.