New customs regulation conflicts with president’s decree?
Effective from May 15, 2008, Belarus Customs will rely on their recommendations to identify the status of goods moved across the border by physical entities. The aim of these “recommendations” is to determine and restrict the number of imported goods.
Under the recommendations, citizens are allowed to bring in not more than three pieces of one commodity name once within three months. Anyway, not more than 10 commodity names will be allowed into the country. If you travel more often than once a week, you will be able to bring in only one piece of only one commodity name.
The European Radio for Belarus tried to find out what technical means would be used by customs officers in order to monitor the number of imported goods by one person.
According to a customs official at the border crossing point in Brest, no new declarations will be required. The checked goods will not be entered into a computer, either. It will be a given customs officer to decide whether to clear your belongings through the border or not. Customs officers will count your goods and check how often you travel across the border.
Customs: “How can one check the number of goods if not by inspecting the baggage? Can you offer any other option? Everything depends on how often you cross the border. If you travel once a month, you can bring in 5 commodity names with not more than three pieces for each name. If you travel once within six months, there are no limitations at all”.
The customs officer says that if you are carrying three pairs of shoes instead of four, you can be asked to return them to the country of origin. But, most likely, you will be cleared to go without any conflict, she says.
“I don’t think that there will be any problems because of one excessive pair. Since these recommendations have not come into force yet, it is hard to say how they will be implemented”.
The European Radio for Belarus also asked whether personal things taken from home would be banned from entering the country on the way back. Ihar Laurynenka, a deputy chief of the customs service at the Bruzgi crossing point, says that personal belongings will not be subjected to restrictions.
All the officials, interviewed by the European Radio for Belarus, stressed that the recommendations had been developed in the framework of the president’s decree No 503 dated October 15, 2007. However, the European Radio for Belarus has failed to get a clear understanding in the decree’s text of how many jeans a father of three who works in the construction sector could bring in after his second trip abroad. Former judge of the Constitutional Court, Valery Fadzeyeu, also said that the recommendations did not seem to be in line with the president’s decree.
“The rules of moving the goods across the border are approved by the president’s decree. The edict just indicates a total amount and a total weight. I can’t remember that it regulates the number of goods in pieces. The decree differentiates the goods for personal or commercial use. It definitely doesn’t deal with number and name limitations”.
In the view of the former judge of the Constitutional Court, the recommendations, developed by the customs authorities, do not meet the effective president’s decree.
“If there is a president’s edict, other regulations should be in line with this decree. I could not understand whether it will be a certain measure of the customs committee or an instruction from a higher authority. I think there are problems here”.
Customs officials maintain that they will allegedly reinforce controls over the people who import the goods illegally for commercial goals by using the allowed duty-free quotas. However, it doesn’t explain why the law allows to bring in 35 kg of cargo worth not more than Euro 1000, while the customs introduce a new regulation.
The European Radio for Belarus tried to find out at the State Customs Committee whether people should now carry salary and family statements along with their passports when they travel abroad. Otherwise, how can customs officials check whether a person is telling the truth, trying to defend its right to carry more trousers or stocks than others? Uladzimir Pekhtserau, a spokesman for the Customs Committee, advised the European Radio for Belarus to write an official request for explanations. We hope to get an answer within one month.
