The Public Council at the Federal Customs Service demonstrates effective work to ensure dialogue between customs authorities and business. At the initial stage, interaction was established at the level of the central office of the FCS. This year, the PC’s attention will be focused on interaction with the regions, since a number of issues requiring elaboration are regional in nature. In addition, the local business is ready to clearly formulate questions for the customs authorities. The work of the PC at the regional level is designed to ensure a constructive dialogue between business and customs in a professional language.
An increase in the effectiveness of the Council’s work in this direction will be facilitated by an increase in the composition of the council by 8 people – representatives of federal districts.
In the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly on January 15, 2020, the task was set for all institutions of power to establish a direct dialogue with citizens: “People often know better what, why and how to change where they live, work, – in cities, districts, villages , countrywide”. At its level, the Public Council under the FCS of Russia began the implementation of this task from the Far East. During a visit to the Far Eastern Customs Administration in October last year, the Chairman of the Public Council at the FCS of Russia Leonid Lozbenko took part in a meeting of the Advisory Council of the Far Eastern Customs Administration on interaction with participants of foreign economic activity. In his speech, he voiced a number of proposals for optimizing the work of the customs authorities of the region, which are emphasized by entrepreneurs of the Far Eastern region in the appeals received by the Council.
Almost all the proposals voiced have found their solution. For example, delays in the issuance of containers from the customs control zone of the seaport of Vladivostok upon completion of control measures after the release of such goods are excluded. If a previously interested person was forced to obtain written permission for goods to cross the border of the customs control zone for presentation to the port terminal operator, which could take several days, now the customs post processes such applications via e-mail and duplicates the positive decision to the port terminal operator . A survey of 15 signatory companies of the Charter of Bona fide FEA Participants shows that cargo delays no longer occur. The time for port workers to obtain permission was reduced from a few days to tens of minutes.
A solution has been found and the problems of filing passenger customs declarations for motor vehicles delivered by the carrier to individuals.
Earlier, customs systematically revealed the facts of the import of such goods to individuals who are not related to either the purchase or the declaration of goods. In fact, copies of the documents of an individual obtained, often without his knowledge, were used for import. When submitting a passenger customs declaration by a customs representative without the personal presence of an individual recipient of goods, customs applied a whole range of measures to minimize risks aimed at establishing the fact of the acquisition of goods by the person on whose behalf the declaration was filed. This significantly increased the time of customs operations, increased the cost of storing goods in temporary storage warehouses.
In the dialogue between the customs representatives and the customs authority, an algorithm for conducting documentary control was developed, which allows qualitatively and quickly to complete customs operations in relation to the category of goods under consideration and to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. The mechanism for the provision by the customs representative of notarized copies of physical passports for customs control turned out to be mutually acceptable, which excludes the very possibility of using “foreign” documents for the import and clearance of goods. Based on the results of the meeting, customs representatives expressed a desire to sign the Charter of conscientious participants in foreign economic activity. In February of this year, customs representatives confirmed the effectiveness of the measures taken, as well as reducing the time for customs declaration and the cost of storing goods.
The problem of delays in customs control, the decision on which was made at the stage of goods arrival, was also solved. In cases where, as part of the risk management system, the need for actual control was identified directly upon the arrival of goods, until the completion of such an inspection, the goods could not be released from the customs control zone, even though the goods declaration has already been issued. After working out various options, it was decided to provide immediate information on the actual control used not only by the declarant but also by the port terminal operator. This made it possible to exclude a number of port operations for moving the container between specialized port sites and to exclude the technological storage of goods. Already, such containers from the ship immediately follow to the inspection site or for weighing. This has significantly reduced the time of actual control “from arrival”. In addition, port workers interested in providing high-quality port services have completed the arrangement of an automated weighing device that allows them to weigh containers 24 hours a day under the indirect customs supervision of a customs post official using an industrial television system and cross-photo recording of the weighing process and weight readings.
Another issue – the possibility of releasing goods, the details of which are stated in the preliminary customs declaration, without actually placing the goods in a temporary storage warehouse within 12 hours of their arrival, turned out to be more complicated. The difficulty lies in the absence of a unique feature by which the information systems used by customs officers in an external customs post could identify the consignment by which the PDD was filed in the electronic declaration center. This is necessary so that the fact of the arrival of goods can immediately start an operation to release such goods. The solution to this issue was the use of the resources of the KPS “Portal Sea Port”, which allows the interested party to enter information on the identification signs of delivery and on the PDD number into the information system of the customs post of arrival. In this case, the inspector of the EDC receives information on the arrival of goods immediately after the vessel calls at the port. This allows you to release the goods on time without placing them in temporary storage. The technology has been tested and is available to participants of foreign economic activity.
