The President took part in the State Customs Committee Collegium. The Chairman of the State Customs Committee informed the meeting participants about the main results of the past year. Vitaly Neagu focused on the fact that the activities of the department were carried out in accordance with the current legislation and the instructions of the President. One of the main tasks set by the President is to change the philosophy of the work of the committee: advisory functions should prevail over control-fiscal. 2017 was dedicated to the reform of the legislative framework. Over four hundred amendments aimed at liberalizing and avoiding excessive formalism were introduced into the Customs Code of the State Customs Committee. 2018 was marked as practical implementation of new standards. Administrative mechanisms are simplified, effective interaction between business and customs authorities is established. The institute of the authorized operator appeared, the status of the national enterprise was acquired by 28 economic entities, 15 were recognized as bona fide participants of foreign economic activity. Considering the preferences enjoyed by the owners of these statuses, their number will continue to grow, the head of the State Customs Committee of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is sure.
Vitaly Neagu focused on events aimed at simplifying and speeding up customs procedures. Reference price information on moved across the border goods has become public, and therefore available to users. Systematic work was carried out to reduce the rates of import duties. The changes related to 760 items. Reporting system was updated. Economic entities have the opportunity to secure storage of goods in their own warehouses (without paying storage fees). The number of customs duties has been reduced to three positions. Procedures associated with the design of exported goods were significantly simplified. The Center for electronic declaration was introduced to the structure of the SCC. A system for ensuring the protection of intellectual property rights is being formed. Vitaly Neagu spoke about the departure from total inspections against entrepreneurs by customs officials: at the request of the President, the area of operation of customs structures is the border. Checkpoints infrastructure is improved.
The Chairman of the State Customs Committee informed about interaction with foreign colleagues, in particular, Russian colleagues. He marked 34% increase in trade with Russia and 27% increase in foreign trade turnover as a whole (by the end of 2018, it amounted to almost 2 billion USD). Small businesses stepped out of the shade. While this category appears more frequently in cases of violations of customs rules, the Chairman of the PMR State Customs Committee stated. About twenty cases are recorded per week. In general, 1120 violations of customs legislation were revealed during the year. Most of all - in the zone of Tiraspol customs, said Vitaly Neagu. The total amount of penalties is 190 thousand dollars. In addition, according to the results of consideration of administrative cases, customs payments in the amount of 42 thousand conventional units were collected.
Vitaly Neagu paid attention to the issue of interaction of customs authorities with individuals. On behalf of the President, a set of measures to minimize tensions has been developed and is being implemented when exercising control at checkpoints. The institute of carriers of goods for personal use was introduced. The problem of protracted processing and processing of parcels and other international mail has become a thing of the past. The online consultation service allows to quickly solve many issues of the agenda. Over the year, the departmental Internet resource received 5.000 questions. The processing time for each request is 10 minutes maximum . As for the dialogue with the business community, twenty meetings were held during the year, over two thousand applications were considered. More than a thousand appeals were received by means of hotlines. At the initiative of the President, a system for assessing the quality of the work of officials is used. The point at issue is the use of special remotes. Only 19 out of the 29 thousand recorded opinions were negative, in 19 cases the assessment was chosen as “satisfactory”, the head of the department noted. He spoke about the work with the staff of the committee and organizational and staff events, noting that the staffing of the department is 84%. Most customs officers are between 31-40 years old. Speaking about the professional training of specialists, Vitaly Neagu said that 60 Pridnestrovians are studying at the Russian Customs Academy on a budgetary basis. 50 representatives of the State Customs Committee of the PMR graduated from this university during 12 previous years.
Returning to the issue of interaction with the public, the chairman of the State Customs Committee of the PMR recalled that the Public Advisory Council on Customs Policy includes leading associations and business unions of the republic. The leadership of this body has been transferred to a business representative. Chairman of the Public Advisory Council Boris Kichuk continued reporting part of the meeting of the Collegium. He confirmed the constructiveness and effectiveness of the dialogue between the customs and the business community that started at the end of 2016. According to him, the current model of interaction is built on the principles of timeliness of raising problem issues and their solution.
The Prosecutor of the PMR gave assessment of the activities of the State Customs Committee. He confirmed that the number of complaints regarding the activities of the customs authorities of the department is minimal, but nevertheless they exist. Moreover, there were more appeals from current or former employees of the committee, rather than from individuals and legal entities, Anatoly Guretsky stated. The prosecutor of the republic noted that the customs authorities are open to contact with representatives of regulatory authorities and respond positively to comments and recommendations. Work with citizens is another aspect that the PMR Prosecutor drew attention. Anatoly Guretsky said that personal contact between the leadership of the SCC structures and citizens has not been established with the active creation of conditions for consulting and organizing interaction with the public. In his opinion, personal reception by officials should take place. The PMR President takes the attitude. According to him, personal contact with citizens, live communication with people allows deeper understanding of the essence of the existing problems.
Speaking about the activities of the PMR State Customs Committee as a whole, Vadim Krasnoselsky stated that customs has ceased to be an annoying factor. The President aimed the management and staff of the committee to further systematic improvement of customs legislation, emphasizing that this is a systematic work designed to quickly respond to ever-changing realities. The President urged not to stop at what had been achieved in simplifying the export of Pridnestrovian goods. Vadim Krasnoselsky supposes that it is necessary to expand the geography and increase the volume of deliveries of products abroad. Customs is assigned one of the leading roles in this issue solving. An important achievement of the President was the introduction of an electronic declaration system. The task for the future is the introduction of an automated control system. Vadim Krasnoselsky also spoke about the importance of training highly qualified personnel. He noted that it was necessary not only to focus attention on the availability of specialized education for customs officers, but also to create conditions for the continuous improvement of their qualifications. Another topic raised by the President is the entry into force in April of the current year of new laws on business patents. Vadim Krasnoselsky considers the law to be flexible and fair, and the presence of various kinds of interpretations around him is associated with a lack of awareness of the participants of foreign economic activity who work on an individual patent (changes affect this category of entrepreneurs). The President recommended to increase attention to this issue in order to relieve tension in society.
In general, the work of the PMR State Customs Committee on the results of 2018 was recognized by the President as satisfactory.
