In Finance Ministry, they hope that specifying the rules to charge customs duties on goods of poor quality and on smuggled goods will narrow corrupt opportunities of customs officials.
Photo: Vasily Alexandrov
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Govt Fixes Smuggling Regulations
The ruling of the RF cabinet that was promulgated Thursday spells out procedures to determine the custom value of goods exported from Russia, defective goods and the goods smuggled to the country. In Finance Ministry, they stake on the new procedures to narrow corrupt opportunities of customs officials.
The government’s ruling on Procedures to Determine the Customs Value of Goods Transferred Via the RF Customs Border was shaped as continuation of existing Act on Customs Tariffs. The regulations extend to three categories of product – the goods exported from Russia, the goods illegally imported to the country and the goods with defects resulted from force majeure. Previously, no regulations covered the last two categories. In case of need, the respective goods were evaluated according to special letters of Federal Customs Service.
The recent ruling has shaped a new approach to fixing the worth of the broken goods. Earlier, it was the price set forth in the foreign trade contracts that was taken as basic when calculating the customs charges. But the new ruling specifies that the actual condition of cargo is to be used for this purpose, which is obviously more fair and in line with the world practice.
Another achievement of the government is making clear how to evaluate smuggled goods. In the absence of documents about the import terms for the consignment, its customs value will be established in view of condition in time of the customs or tax inspections.
When it comes to the worth of exported goods, the principal novelty is no control of the customs over the goods exempt from duties and taxes. Even though the export duties don’t apply to all primary commodities now, customs officers require a full package of confirming documents even from an exporter that pays no duties or taxes. The reason of the demand is charging the fees for cargo processing exactly based on the customs value of goods.
“From now on a customs inspector will have to take into account the value declared by a customs applicant to calculate the fees, with no documentary confirmation provided,” said Yelena Belozerova, the senior lawyer at Pepelyaev, Goltsblat & Partners.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 18, 2006
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