Baltic Customs (St. Petersburg, North-West Customs Directorate) while auditing export and import traffics through its posts in 2009, collected and transferred to local and federal budgets at least 25 million rubles. Those were penalties and fines charged from owners of cargoes for improper declaration procedure. It turns to be a twofold growth over the previous year’s numbers. Overall, in 2009 the customs officers conducted 260 inspections, including 53 customs audits, Irina Lomova, press-secretary of the Baltic Customs said.

As a result of the audits, law enforcement agencies initiated 31 criminal proceedings and 178 cases of misdemeanor. The customs officers have revealed improperly completed declarations and forged documents provided during customs clearance. In particular, there were several non-existent contracts and shipping documents.