Customs

The European Business Association suggestion regarding providing the mechanism of goods’ declaration before the moment of entrance under the previous customs declaration was considered in the Letter of the Ministry of Revenues and Duties of Ukraine No 18879/7/99-99-24-01-06-17 dated 23 September 2013.

Background: On 1 June 2012 the new edition of the Customs Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Code) came into force, causing the large-scale implementation of the electronic declaration of goods, activation of the electronic paper flow, reduction of time for customs clearance, and the increasing of efficiencies from using of certain customs regimes etc. With regard to this positive estimations were made by most members of the European Business Association (hereinafter – the Association). But a year after the introduction of such innovations, some provisions of the Code had not been realized. In particular, it relates to the possibility of declaring goods before the moment of entrance under the previous customs declaration, without their further demonstration to the authority of revenues and duties of Ukraine. According to part 4 Article 259 of the Code, under which the decision of the authority of revenues and duties under the previous customs declaration was executed, the release of goods and transport vehicles with a commercial purpose, according to the applied customs regime under the previous customs declaration, which contains all necessary information, could be done after the transportation of such goods on vehicles through the customs border of Ukraine without their demonstration to the authority of revenues and duties. But, as the member-companies stated, in practice such simplification has not been executed.

The Association has repeatedly focused the attention of the representatives of the authorities of revenues and duties in its official letters, as well as during the meetings between experts of the member-companies of the Association and representatives of the state bodies.

We are glad to announce that on 23 September 2013 the Ministry of Revenues and Duties of Ukraine in the Letter to the customs offices and Department for IT and E-Services Development and Taxpayers’ Registration No 18879/7/99-99-24-01-06-17 “On Specifics of Customs Clearance under the Previous Customs Declaration of “EA” Type” recommends that authorities of revenues and duties, which provide for the release of goods into the appropriate customs regime under the customs declaration of “AE” type, promote controlling the fulfillment of the single authorized informational system with relevant information regarding the results of certain types of control as specified in part 1 Article 319 of the Code concerning goods, which should be registered under the appropriate declaration with the aim to remove them from their control. In case of necessary control at customs points by representatives of control services, authorities of revenues and duties were recommended to involve the latter into this process.

The Association would like to express our gratitude to the Ministry of Revenues and Duties of Ukraine for the constructive dialogue and to all members of the Customs Committee of the Association for their active participation and persistence in solving this problem. The Association would like to offer assurances that we will continue to work on issues concerning the protection of the legal interests of our members.