NEW LAW HAS BEEN ADOPTED “ON CUSTOMS REGULATION…”

President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Putin V.V., have signed the law No. 289-FZ dated 03.08.2018 “On Customs Regulation in the Russian Federation and on amendment of some legal acts of the Russian Federation”. The Law comes into force on 04.09.2018 and some its parts on other dates.

This Law provides the following:

• Suspension of customs duties payment during 1 month for goods of any kind shall be applicable providing that respective security is deposited.  
• Period for making preliminary decision on the goods classification was reduced from 90 days to 60 days. 
• Period for customs examination performance was reduced from 10 days to 1 day.
• Conditions were established under which customs representative is entitled to use part of his security towards performance of his customers’ obligations in respect of a particular customs clearance certificate.
• The rule was adopted providing that third parties were allowed to perform obligations for customs duties payment.
• New mechanism is considered for customs duties payment for internet trading though the single operator and in respect of the goods of all kinds.
• It was provided that the Government would establish requirement for the customs duties operators.

The new Law in general complies with the requirements of the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Committee for reduction of expenses for business on the background of general increase of the customs control effectiveness.

The customs representative will become entitled to pay customs duties in respect of the goods imported by the individuals. This is applicable both to the citizens of the RF and foreign tourists, and foreign professionals employed in the RF.

Also, the customs representative is entitled now to pay customs duties and charges in respect of the goods brought in for personal use except for the motor vehicles if it is provided under the agreement executed by him/her and the customs declarant.

Federal authorities are entitled now to transfer for free sanitary and hygienic and medical products, perishable goods, baby’s and dietary nutrition, as well as clothes, shoes and other articles of prime necessity withdrawn by the customs authorities and converted to the federal ownership to the social protection bodies, medical and educational institutions, if necessary.

Issue concerning suspension of the custom’s representative activities is regulated. If such custom’s representative corrected all the violations Ministry of Finance shall be entitled to include him/her back to the respective register as soon as possible. 

The most interesting information about the amendments concerning foreign trade operators and customs representatives are described above.

Sincerely yours, Anatoly