“Strong Georgia — Lelo demands that the 300-lari customs clearance threshold set for postal items be raised to 900 lari for Georgian citizens,” stated Tazo Datunashvili, one of the leaders of “Strong Georgia — Lelo,” at a press briefing today.
According to his assessment, raising this limit would bring significant relief to the citizens of Georgia.
“As you know, the current threshold of 300 lari was established in 2009. In 2009, the exchange rate of the lari against the US dollar was 1.66 lari, whereas now, in August 2026, the exchange rate stands at 2.62 lari.
In parallel, as you know, following the COVID-19 pandemic, a revolution of sorts took place across the entire retail system, and a significant portion of Georgian citizens switched to shopping online and ordering various goods. Consequently, the customs clearance limit established in 2009 at an exchange rate of 1.66 lari is no longer realistic today, and hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens view this 300-lari limit as a very heavy burden, as exceeding it mandates customs clearance and all the accompanying bureaucratic procedures to receive their ordered items.
Raising the limit to 900 lari has been calculated by our team in a way that will not cause significant damage to Georgia’s state budget, while providing great relief to citizens who shop online. For example, we studied the volume of postal shipments valued up to 900 lari and weighing up to 30 kg, where combined import duties and VAT account for 14 million lari in the budget. While budget revenues would decrease by 14 million lari, hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens would experience immense relief. This would benefit individual citizens ordering products from TEMU, Amazon, or other major international platforms—which are often much cheaper than products available locally in Georgia—and it would also bring major relief to small and medium-sized businesses engaged in retail resale.
Therefore, we care about the citizens of this country, unlike ‘Georgian Dream’, and we say that this limit is completely unjustified. From the moment ‘Strong Georgia — Lelo’ comes to power, this will be one of the very first reforms we implement. But even before then, the deceitful government of Irakli Kobakhidze, which claims it wants to address rising prices, has an opportunity—this measure directly improves the price situation in this country,” stated Tazo Datunashvili.
