OREANDA-NEWS. February 1, 2013. The regular meeting under the chairmanship of Mrs. Tatiana Golendeeva, State Secretary, Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service, took place in the Russian FCS. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the companies, members of the Association of European Businesses in Russia, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the Foreign Investment Advisory Council in Russia, the United States Chamber of Commerce as well as the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce.

During the meeting the questions of customs regulation, which arise for foreign companies involved in the foreign economic activity, were discussed.

Mr. Oleg Plotnikov, First Deputy Head of General Directorate for Organization and Inspection, and Mr. Leonid Savickiy, Deputy Head of Analysis Directorate, informed the audience about the progress of implementation of the Concept of customs clearance and customs control of goods in the places close to the Russian Federation state border. One of the main tools of the Concept implementation is the extension of remote release technology practices. Today 26 Electronic Declaration Centers were created. During the current year more than 68 thousand goods declarations were registered there, so that it is four times more than the figures of 2011.

Mr. Savickiy pointed out that development and improvement of the customs infrastructure close to the vehicle checkpoints depends directly on the intensity and volume of stable trade flows. Required infrastructure for carrying out of customs operations and customs control in the border regions has been created in the vicinity of practically all major checkpoints. Moreover, two or three customs and logistics terminals operate near the biggest checkpoints.

Mrs. Elena Bormotova, Head of IT General Directorate, presented the statistics, showing the growth of the number of electronic goods declarations for the current year. As at December 1, 2012, more than 3 million 700 thousand goods declarations were submitted electronically to the customs authorities via the Internet, which amounts 94.7% of the total number of submitted declarations. The number of foreign economic activity participants who use Internet declarations is growing: about 69 thousand companies or 85.4% of all the Russian organizations involved in foreign trade have already chosen the electronic declaration form.

During the event, among others, the question of opportunities to deploy the system of compulsory preliminary informing in respect of the commodities imported by other means of transport (other than vehicles) was raised.

Mr. Vladimir Ivin, Head of General Directorate for Customs Processing Organization and Customs Control, focused attention of those present on the fact that the Russian Federal Customs Service possesses all the technical facilities for parties concerned to provide the Customs Authorities with preliminary information on the goods imported by air, rail and marine means of transport, including the possibility to use portal solutions.

The Federal Customs Service is actively working with the representatives of the Association of Marine Agents of St. Petersburg, the Association of Sea Commercial Ports, the Union of Russian Shipowners and other organizations involved in the transportation of goods by marine means of transport, as well as with JSC “RZD”, in order to implement compulsory preliminary informing in sea and rail checkpoints.

Preliminary informing for the goods and vehicles, transported by air, is regarded within the context of implementation of the international standard for electronic registration and monitoring of air cargo transportation (E-freight) in the Russian Federation. The FCS of Russia is working in this direction in association with the Ministry of Transport of Russia.

Mr. Ivin said that the successful experience of implementation of the compulsory preliminary informing system in respect to the commodities, imported to the Customs Union territory by vehicles, shows the necessity to extend the compulsory preliminary informing regarding the goods, transported by other means of transport, in order to minimize the time required to perform customs operations in the Customs Union border checkpoints.

At the end of the meeting Mrs. Golendeeva stressed the fact that a lot of questions, raised by the business community during such events, are perceived by the Federal Customs Service as a kind of sign posts, indicating directions to take to create more favourable conditions for doing business in the Russian Federation.