Head of the State Fiscal Service:  We eliminated the confusion business faced during customs clearance of imported goods

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Kyiv, October 2, 2015. The State Fiscal Service has eliminated hindrances business faced due to a change in the working concept of customs bodies while importing goods to Ukraine, said Roman Nasirov, Head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (SFS) at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center as a part of the Ukraine Reforms Communications Taskforce. “Our work is back to normal and routine operation has resumed. We held a meeting with representatives of business associations today and discussed all their concerns in detail. We agreed to discuss similar issues in advance. A hotline was launched to provide explanations and tackle problems,” informed the SFS Head.

A decree of the Cabinet of Ministers No.724 came into effect on September 23, 2015. It obliges bodies of revenue and duties to consider unified approximation of customs value when conducting customs procedures for imported goods. Nevertheless, business started complaining that customs officers demanded upward adjustment of customs value and thus provided a basis for further duties.

Roman Nasirov admitted that such a problem exists, saying that the Cabinet of Ministers allowed only two days, which was too small a period for the SFS to define a list of goods and their average customs value. The SFS also failed to brief all the customs officers properly which caused the problems experienced by business and local authorities. However, according to Nasirov, this problem has been solved.

Taras Kachka, special representative to the SFS on entrepreneurial activity, said that the situation resulting from government decree No.724 brought up the issue of the concept of customs values. Discussion resumed on the ways of standardization of problematic issues in order to avoid situations when customs officers demand upward adjustment of customs values from importers. “All the stakeholders – both authorities and business – agreed that regular training of customs officers and interpretation of trading terms for different types of goods will help to minimize the problems faced by business. It is a customs officer who makes a decision on customs value in each individual case, so his/her awareness is important,” summarized Kachka.