The Russian
customs service works according to the Customs Codex of the Customs Union of
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan
As you
might have heard, customs clearance in Russia
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 Russia
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.
