Swiss import duties on a number of industrial products might disappear if a plan put forward by Guy Parmelin, Switzerland’s economic’s minister, is approved by the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, according to RTS. © Tatsiana Hendzel | Dreamstime.comThe changes are expected to benefit businesses and consumers by around CHF 860 million a year. On the other hand, the government will miss out on collecting roughly CHF 500 million a year of revenue from import duties. Products covered by the plan include cars, clothing, household appliances, bicycles, healthcare products and a number of other industrial products. On average these products attract duty of 1.8%. Clothing is taxed at 4%. Sophie Michaud-Gigon, a representative of FRC, a consumer association, told RTS that
Topics:
Investec considers the following as important: Editor's Choice, Expensive Switzerland, Personal finance
This could be interesting, too:
Investec writes Switzerland ranked second in digital competitiveness
Investec writes Swiss wages set to rise in 2025
Investec writes Federal Council hopes to boost savings with pension change
Investec writes Switzerland’s cross border workers reach record level
Swiss import duties on a number of industrial products might disappear if a plan put forward by Guy Parmelin, Switzerland’s economic’s minister, is approved by the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, according to RTS.
The changes are expected to benefit businesses and consumers by around CHF 860 million a year. On the other hand, the government will miss out on collecting roughly CHF 500 million a year of revenue from import duties.
Products covered by the plan include cars, clothing, household appliances, bicycles, healthcare products and a number of other industrial products. On average these products attract duty of 1.8%. Clothing is taxed at 4%.
Sophie Michaud-Gigon, a representative of FRC, a consumer association, told RTS that it’s rare to see lower import costs leading to lower prices.
If accepted, the duties would disappear on 1 January 2022, according to RTS.
Unfortunately for some consumers, none of the highly taxed food items such as meat and dairy products are on this list. Duty on some beef products can rise above CHF 20 per kg. Cream and butter (CHF 7.65 per kg) are other products with high import duty.
More on this:
RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.