Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS), has simplified the procedure of cargo clearance, establishing the order when any foreign carrier, whose ship calls successively at two or more seaports of Russia, will not need to register each time the customs documents, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports. The new rules were established in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Code of the Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which has come into force.
The new procedures are applied to all foreign goods transported on international lines if the vessels follow the regular routes with stopovers in two or more Russian ports. FCS believes the process of customs clearance of such goods will be significantly simplified. The new procedures will significantly reduce the time of customs clearance of cargo at Russian seaports.
There are 63 operating seaports in Russia, handling annually about 500 million tons of different cargoes. The current seaports development program, aimed at simplification of customs procedures and upgrade of the ports infrastructure, will help boost in the next four years Russian seaports’ throughput by as much as 1.5 times.