среда, 20 февраля 2013 г.

Customs clearance in Russia: risk management, cargo searches and consequences


The Russian customs service works according to the Customs Codex of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It is often wrongly assumed, that the Customs Union is made up of all the CIS-countries. Well, this is not so, as there are only three member-states, all listed above.

As you might have heard, customs clearance in Russia is full of surprises. It is recommended to work via a customs brokerage company for this very reason. Customs regulations are subject to changes, which are impossible to track without specialized software packages and being close to the customs. Some changes may make importing some products illegal without a certificate. Thus, on January 23rd 2013, plastic bags were assigned the status of “certificate requiring goods”. Basically, issues regarding the certificates are the most complex ones.

Most consumer goods, such as clothing, processed foods, cosmetics, perfume etc are subject to certification in the Customs Union. This means, that a certificate or two is required for every product, imported to the Customs Union. Only official certificates of the Customs Union are valid in this case. ISO-9001 will not do. The rules for issuing the certificates are changed annually, so the information from 2011 is useless today.

The declaration

Once the goods arrive on the Customs Territory of the Customs Union, they can only be used after a customs declaration is accepted and processed by the customs officials. In Russia thiscan only be done using special software and includes all the information about the goods: origin, manufacturer, cost etc.

Now, I will introduce the idea of a good customs declaration, as opposed to the one that will get the declarant into trouble.

A good declaration:

-        Lists all the items, that seem like products in the shipment
-        Does not combine “0-priced” products with products with a price. Either declare free-of-charge products in a separate declaration, or assign them values in the invoice as-if-paid for.
-        For most consumer goods: the price of the goods is above the minimum control point value, set by the customs. These are generally for internal use only and may even vary from customs to customs. Cosmetics, for instance, are supposed to cost not less then 40 USD per kilo.
-        Contain no products, which require, but lack a certificate.
-        Has a value per kilo not less then the previous declaration of the same goods.

To clarify the issues:

After the cargo is unloaded, it is stored in a special customs warehouse until approved by the officials. Usually, there is a free period of 2-4 days, after which the cost is usually about 12 cents per kilo per day. This makes having any sort of trouble with the customs costly, as procedures take time, if the declaration is not approved on first try.

Price control points: in case, the Customs thinks, the goods are too cheap, they may start a procedure, called “correction of the customs value” by basically inventing the proper price. There is no way proving the customs wrong, except in court. Normally, companies pay what is assigned and then file court cases only to retrieve the lost money 4-6 months later, if they are lucky.

Products with no required certificates are to be shipped and declared separately. They can be imported upon request by a certifying institution as samples for testing.  If there are products with no certificates in a regular shipment, the declaration is called off, then the procedure to remove the products from the shipment is run, followed by an administrative case against the company. Only after all these steps are taken, will the cargo be cleared. The company is then obliged to declare the confiscated items under a suitable customs regime,

Complete customs searches are assigned at random ,following risk-management recommendations. Not meeting the price control points and having declaring issues as well as illogical weights increases the risks to almost 100%.

Searches are conducted directly in the warehouses. In winter, the temperature is just above zero. In most cases, only one inspector is assigned for the job. It is assumed that 2-3 employees of the importing company are to assist, otherwise the search may last up to 2 weeks. 

воскресенье, 6 января 2013 г.

Depardieu, welcome!

We welcome Gerard Depardieu as a new sitizen of Russia! Yes, we have a flat 13% income tax. So please, explain this to Renault, Stallone, Riddley Scott, Mark Knopfler, Brad Pitt and others. It is time we have good movies and music here!

Streets of Benares (Varanassi)


Is democracy a solution?

I am curently in Nepal. It is my second time in the country and it seems, things are going badly here. All the walls are covered with posters, people seem to rally daily, the maoists spread propaganda, while failing to provide a constitiution. At the same time, there is a poor electricity supply and many stores, which used to sell local goods are now selling chinese rubbish.

Well, they shuld remember what Lenin said: Communism = power of the Soviets + electrification of the entire country. Yes, those who solved the equasion got free meals and guaranteed jobs for a decade. 

вторник, 1 января 2013 г.