Duty-free shops located on the land borders of Moldova will lose the status of duty-free shops by the end of 2022.
This is provided for by the government's conclusion on a package of amendments to the draft new Customs Code, which was adopted in July last year in the first reading. To date, after consultations with the competent authorities and the business environment, 46 proposals have been considered, of which 9 were supported, 5 were partially supported, and 32 were not supported at all. One of the amendments of the MPs, which did not receive support, is related to the customs regime of duty-free shops. As Finance Minister Dumitru Budianschi noted, the new Customs Code complies with EU legislation, which provides for the possibility of opening duty-free shops only at airports, ports, on board aircraft and ships. Some duty-free shops in the border area will cease operations after the license expires (December 22, 2022). Also, amendments to Article 315, which provide for the exclusion of the possibility of placing goods in the FEZ (free economic zones) in active processing mode, are not supported. This is due to the fact that the concept of special customs regimes is completely changed in the new Customs Code, and the FEZ regime will be included in the customs regime for special warehousing. A different concept applied to the FEZ regime contradicts Moldova's obligations to harmonize national legislation with European one. At the same time, the government supported the adjustment of some key concepts: customs supervision, customs decision, declaration of origin, exporter, re-export notification, etc. By the second reading, the draft Customs Code will change the limit of damage caused to the state budget by the customs broker by systematic violations of customs or tax legislation, in which the broker's license is revoked: instead of damage worth 2 million lei it will be 500 thousand lei within 1 year. The draft specifies that the exchange rate used for customs purposes is the exchange rate established by the NBM at the time the customs debt arises. The conditions for the destruction of goods that violate intellectual property rights are being simplified, and an increase from 1 year to 3 years is supported, during which the copyright holder is obliged to destroy goods that violate intellectual property rights. In order to improve the provisions of the draft law, there were proposed amendments aimed at ensuring equal conditions and clarifying customs regulations: reducing the maximum amount of the fine in case of non-declaration of goods - to 25 thousand lei instead of 40 thousand lei, clarification of the conceptual apparatus under the article "Compliance with the law" etc. At the same time, it is proposed to apply state guarantees to economic agents registered before the entry into force of the Customs Code in free economic zones, Giurgiulesti port and Marculesti airport, in accordance with the provisions of the documents that regulate these objects. The guarantees will apply to economic agents that will be registered from January 1, 2023 to September 1, 2024. Parliament will have to approve the draft of the new Customs Code in the second reading. It is planned that the document will take effect on January 1, 2023. // 13.08.2021 – InfoMarket
