Prosecutors Veto Plan For Customs Checks
Dmitry Kazmin and Maxim Tovkailo
Vedomosti
MOSCOW — The Federal Customs Service’s plan for announced inspections of business next year was the first to fall afoul of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which said 90 percent of its proposed checks were illegal. Beginning next year, all planned checks on business need to be approved beforehand with the Prosecutor General’s Office. The service had intended to check companies more frequently than once every three years, and some firms would face inspections from several different customs departments within the course of a year, the prosecutor’s office said. The infractions also included more than doubling the maximum duration of an inspection, currently three months. The customs service conducts two types of inspections: in warehouses, to search for contraband, and audits, during which officials can check information provided on import documentation, said Marina Lyakisheva, an adviser at DLA Piper. She said business has faced heavier pressure from the customs service this year. “Of course, you can understand where the Federal Customs Service is coming from, too. They were given a tough plan for collections, which they aren’t able to meet.” The Federal Customs Service is planning to contribute between 3 trillion rubles and 3.1 trillion rubles ($104 billion to $108 billion) to the budget this year, director Andrei Belyaninov told Vedomosti in August. The figure was 400 billion to 500 billion rubles below the Finance Ministry’s target. The service brought in 50.6 percent of the 2008 federal budget’s revenue. As a result, the service has even had to dip into Gazprom’s pocket, using preliminary declarations to calculate gas export duties. The same system, which does not take into account losses during transport, is used for oil producers. The change would cost Gazprom 111.7 billion rubles ($3.9 billion) this year alone. Spokespeople for the Federal Customs Service and Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to calls Tuesday evening. The prosecutor’s office is acting within its powers, and the decision has nothing to do with the service’s conflict with Gazprom, said Dmitry Peskov, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. Companies surveyed by Vedomosti said they approved of the prosecutors’ decision, but they said planned checks were not their biggest customs problem. Gazprom’s top issue is how duties are calculated, not inspections, spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. Inspections are not much of a concern for the oil industry, either, said Vladimir Kuznetsov, head of TNK-BP Management’s legal department. Export volumes are easy to control, and the duties are calculated based on the volume, he said. The main obstacle for home appliance importers are the constant increases in goods’ customs value, said Anton Guskov, a spokesman for RATEK. Recalculating prices and goods delayed at customs are the biggest issues, agreed the director of a major meat importer, adding that his company never even had any planned inspections.
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