Ministry of Infrastructure jointly with SFS reduce time for customs clearance at ports

On December 25, Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pyvovarsky has signed a memorandum on cooperation in information technologies with the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. Roman Nasirov put his signature on the document from the SFS’s side.

In the framework of cooperation, the sides will improve the technological processes of cargo handling, in particular, they will establish an exchange between information systems of the departments and eliminate duplication of information supplied by a marine agent on goods transported in containers. In the first phase, the facilitation of customs clearance of goods will affect the internal and external transit. The next stage provides the application of the same rules for imports.

"If earlier customs officials started the clearance procedure, which could last for several days, when the ship came into port, then now we intend to reduce the time for such procedure to a zero. This means the formalities to take place before the ship's arrival in port. For products with no risks, business will be able to get all the permissions of the customs office at once, also before the arrival of the ship in port," said Andrii Pyvovarsky during a briefing at the Government House.

According to Roman Nasirov, customs officials will evaluate potential risks as to the goods crossing the border of Ukraine by using the automatic analysis system of risk management as well as soft and information complex WCO CTS, developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO). An agreement with the WCO on collection, storage and exchange of information on cargo (WCO CTS) was signed in July.

The implementation of the memorandum envisages amendments to several legal acts. It is expected that business will be able to use the new procedure in Q1 of 2016.