Customs to Use Computerized Price Guide
The Federal Customs Service is making a new attempt to solve the problem of setting values for import items using information technology. A special database of the prices of goods will be established and updated weekly. The system will be tested from September 1 through December 25 at the customs checkpoints at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo Airports in Moscow and at the Western, Southern and Northern customs checkpoints, also in Moscow.
The value of import items is a source of continual dispute between the customs service and importers. The law “On the Customs Duty” defines six methods to determine customs values. Those are on the basis of the actual price paid under a contract, on the value of a transaction with identical goods, on the basis of a transaction with a similar good, by the deductive method, by the computed method and by the fall-back method. Importers prefer the first method, while customs agents prefer the last, leading to regular court actions.
The new customs database will be called simply Price Information. The customs service already has a database, the Single Automated Information System, but it is, by the admission of customs officials themselves, “piecemeal.” The new system will simplify the work of customs agents, who are not always qualified to determine values with the first five prescribed methods.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 05, 2007
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