The last round of consultations on the draft of the new Customs Code took place in Moldova.
Representatives of AmCham Moldova, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance and the EU high-level adviser on customs and tax policy Rosario de Blasio took part in a joint meeting to discuss the draft of the new Customs Code. The parties discussed about 20 technical proposals aimed at improving the quality of the new Customs Code. AmCham Moldova, in particular, proposed to preserve the status quo of customs procedures for FEZ residents in the new code; clarify some aspects of the activities of customs brokers; maintain the Council's Dispute Resolution Mechanism. Amcham also spoke in favor of changing the size of some violations and the sanctions for them. For example, if an economic agent does not submit a timely notification of re-export, a fine will be applied - from 4 thousand to 40 thousand lei. Amcham members consider such sanctions to be overstated, for example, in Georgia for a similar violation the fine in lei equivalent is from 2.5 thousand to 5 thousand lei, in Romania - from 2 thousand to 6 thousand lei. At the same time, in international practice, in the event of such violations committed due to the non-functionality of information systems, a backup method of general or random inspection is provided and the non-use of simplified procedures, and not fines. Another example: the draft Customs Code stipulates that for inaccurate or erroneous data in documents submitted to the Customs Service to obtain a certificate of origin, the fine will be from 5 thousand to 25 thousand lei. Amcham proposes to reduce this fine to 1 thousand - 12 thousand lei and draws attention to the fact that this type of customs violation was not provided for in the previous code, nor is it provided for in the draft European directive on the regulation of customs violations and sanctions. //11.08.2021 - InfoMarket.
