Tiraspol, 14 April. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The customs services of Moldova and Ukraine are planning to organise joint control along the PMR's border/ This includes 13 motor road and rail crossing points. Such plans have been brought to public discussion by the Moldovan government.
Eight of these 13 points are interstate:
1. Grushka — Velikaya Koshnitsa (motor road);
2. Broshteny — Timkovo (motor road);
3. Varankau — Stanislavka (motor road);
4. Kolosovo — Iosipovka (motor road);
5. Malayeshty — Velikoploskoye (motor road);
6. Blizhny Khutor — Slavyanoserbka (motor road);
7. Nezavertaylovka — Gradintsy (motor road);
8. Valya Turkuluy — Alekseyevka (motor road).
The remaining five are international:
1. Pervomaysk — Kuchurgany (motor road);
2. Novyie Goyany — Platonovo (motor road);
3. Novosavitskaya — Kuchurgan (railway);
4. Kolbasna — Slobodka (railway);
5. Khrustovaya — Bolgan (motor road).
According to the Moldovan media, the establishment of control over the Pridnestrovian border will be carried out in stages. The first stage, scheduled for September — October 2017, applies to international crossing points only. Thereafter, the remaining, interstate, checkpoints will join the project.
According to the government's draft regulation, about 53.5 million lei will be required for the work of joint customs checkpoints.
«In order to ensure joint control at the above crossing points, the Moldovan side should recruit 241 more employees. Accordingly, it is necessary to increase the total number of customs officers from 1,520 to 1,761 people," Kishinev officials estimate.
Pridnestrovie regards the plans of Moldova and Ukraine to organise joint control as an attempt to impose a total blockade of the country and demands this problem be discussed within the framework of the «5+2» format.
According to the analysis, the deployment of only one point in Kuchurgan will result in about $40 million of losses for the Pridnastrovian budget. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR has published on its website a presentation with detailed figures (available on http://mid.gospmr.org/ru/Pxv). Arguments in favour of inadmissibility of joint control posts are also set out in a memorandum by pridnestrovie’s MFA.
Serious problems will occur due to differences in the legislation of Pridnestrovie and Moldova regarding economic activities and the movement of goods. Individual businessmen may carry under $1,000 worth of goods without declaring to Pridnestrovie. In Moldova, this sum is limited to €300. This, in fact, jeopardises small business: over 50,000 people may lose jobs.
In particular, as the minister of economic development, Sergey Obolonik, previously said, changes in the work of the Kuchurgan passing point would entail the reformatting of the work of entrepreneurs «if they are at all ready and agree to such changes» because otherwise, they might leave the country or register as unemployed.
«This will again lead to budget losses in the form of allowances. As well as losses of the budget revenues in the form of patent value, in the form of taxes in general. This entire set of losses, including logistical, economic and budgetary, amounts to $38 million," the minister explained.
Establishing joint Moldo-Ukranian control also poses a particular threat to the security situation. The deployment of Moldovan and Pridnestrovian law enforcers in close proximity to each other outside the Security Zone nay lead to a real escalation of confrontation.
