The Supreme Court has protected the investors interests engaged in business activities in Kazakhstan

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan has canceled previously issued by a court of Astana, Almaty and Aktobe regions the court decisions upon three cases, and granted the LLP "METRO Cash & Carry" legal claim. Accordingly, the notifications of customs authorities on the assessment of imported custom duties, value added tax and penalties in an overall amount of 107,488,739 tenge are recognized illegal and terminated.

The dispute was as follows. LLP "METRO Cash & Carry", carrying out activities in Kazakhstan under complex entrepreneurial license (franchisee), dated January 6, 2012, are not included in the customs value of imported goods 724 032 040 tenge paid to them for 2011-2014. The Department of customs control of Almaty on the results of the audit considered this circumstance under-declaration of customs value of imported goods. This, in turn, resulted in an additional charge of customs payments, taxes and fines for Astana city, Almaty and Aktobe regions on 107 488 739 tenge.

Meanwhile, by virtue of subparagraph 7) of paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Agreement on the determination of the customs value of goods transported through the customs border of the Customs Union dated January 25, 2008 the terms of the inclusion of royalties in the customs value of the imported goods are of relevance to the imported goods and the implementation of any need making such payments, directly or indirectly, as a condition of sale of the goods being valued.

The absence of conditions for the inclusion of made payments by LLP "METRO Cash & Carry" in the customs value of imported goods was established upon the case and is confirmed by the case file. Royalties for the use of its own trademarks were not charged and the actually are not paid by the partnership.