To expedite customs procedures

Russian customs authorities are preparing for the introduction of mandatory pre-arrival notification on maritime transport. The customs claim they are not responsible in any way for ship delays, while the business community point out the discrepancy of some orders FCS to new challenges.

Appeal to the discipline

Mandatory advance electronic information (on ship, cargo) for sea-goring transport of Russia is expected to into effect in 2014-2015. This was the topic of a video conference held recently by customs authorities and representatives of the business community. The use of pre-arrival notification will reduce the time of clearing of loaded vessels up to 9 times and to 20 times for empty ships, said Sergei Amelianovich, a spokesperson for the Main Directorate of Customs Control of Federal Customs Service of Russia (FCS) citing to the results of the survey carried out by the Southern Customs Directorate of FCS. The customs procedures acceleration will be achieved through advance information of customs authority on all the necessary data, so the customs officers would not need to come on board the ship, just checking only documents.

The spokesperson also noted that as of March 1, 2013 at lease 95% of all cargo shipments in the Black Sea are cleared through advance cargo declaration and 100% of all containers - in Vostochny port.

Mr. Amelianovich added that following the Q1 2013 results, the customs procedures on board the ship took 96 minutes on average, while the time the customs officers spent for documentary control, i.e. without stepping on board, was an average of 35 minutes.

In the first quarter of 2013, the average time cargoes stayed in Big Port St. Petersburg was an average of 6,5 days, the chief of Baltic Customs Alexander Chebayev said. The customs declaration procedure itself took 1.1 days, which accounts for 17% of the total average time spent at the port. In the second quarter of the year the goods stayed in the seaport 6.1 days, and the average time of customs declaration operations decreased to 1 day, accounting for 16.4% of the total stay time. Yet, in Q2 2013 the time of operations with cargoes prior to cargo declaration submission did not change on first quarter figure. Mr. Chebayev expressed his hope that operations carried out by other interested parties will also be subject of state regulation.

The head of Baltic Customs pointed to a reason among others responsible for long stay of goods at the port. Officially, the cargo is allowed to be stored for free in Big Port St. Petersburg reaches 5 to 9 days. "That’s why everybody takes one’s time" Mr. Chebayev says.

The terms also depend on the degree of infrastructure development, of access roads, weather conditions, the subjective factors related to the strategies of port terminals development, with possibilities to shift to handling of containers with perishable goods, to quick transshipment without temporary storage, said the official.

Submission of paper documents instead of electronic ones also affect the procedures timing. For the purposes of customs control, customs authorities shall use permits issued by 25 federal authorities, many of which are not formalized and are not available in electronic format.

According to Yuri Bernstein, deputy chief of the Far Eastern Customs Directorate of FCS, who was speaking at the video conference, containers stay in Vostochny port reaches 10 days on average. The period has been reduced to 14 days thanks to advance notification. Vostochny port feature is that at least 80% of containers are transit ones.

"Ship owners and carriers have to consolidate information for submission of cargo declaration to the customs authority,” says Sergei Amelianovich. “I think that all parties involved in the process, including the customs authorities, shall not handle the task separately. This is a fact: the time spent currently for customs procedures account for less time in overall stay of goods in ports. Therefore, stakeholders should be disciplined, building logistics schemes, the relationship between all participants.”

And yet, there some unresolved issues, including those related to the customs agency itself, that prevent acceleration of customs procedures, the Guild of Professional traders told IAA PortNews. One of them is the current requirement that every B/L should be sealed by a customs officer in person. Because of this requirement, even the electronic declaration won’t help and a courier has to spend up to 8 hours to get the stamp.

The Ministry of Transport has long been tackling the issue of accelerated cargo clearance in seaports to make them more competitive with their foreign rivals. As Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Viktor Olersky had said the problem must be solved at the governmental level. The official believes that one of the main measures to expedite the clearance of cargo in the ports could be the unification of the electronic digital signature (EDS), which would allow cargo owners to submit to all state control authorities the documents in electronic format.

"EDS may seem to be a trifle, but it can really save almost half of the time spent on clearance", said Victor Olersky.

Deputy head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia Ruslan Davidov said at a February meeting in St. Petersburg that the Unified EDS Accreditation Center should be established by the Ministry of Communications. All control authorities should be able to use a digital signature of each other, which could free the market participants from an obligation to register an EDS in each department separately,” said Ruslan Davidov.

Vitaly Chernov.