Lent

Each importer regularly commits a crime described by article 291 of the Criminal Code - "Giving a bribe". According to the law, it will not work, because customs can even run into Gazprom

"Novaya" continues to study the circumstances of the life of the Russian customs. Today we will tell you why time slows down at customs and why compliance with customs clearance costs so much. At the Novaya forum, in a discussion of the customs...

"Novaya" continues to study the circumstances of the life of the Russian customs. Today we will tell you why time slows down at customs and why compliance with customs clearance costs so much.

At the Novaya forum, in a discussion of the customs topic, it was discussed how customs officers differ from traffic cops. And who is stronger than whom in terms of improvisation and finding opportunities to get additional bonuses from work? I take the liberty of asserting that customs is stronger. Traffic cops live in a long-established legal landscape. They use every opportunity to redirect the money that I pay the state for the offense into their own personal pocket. But especially stubborn motorists can pay to the official cashier.

Customs landscape forms independently. And the money will not pass by this pocket in any case. If you have at least the permission of the Lord God for the cargo. The customs law is not an argument. Each domestic importer, with varying degrees of constancy, commits a crime described by article 291 of the Criminal Code - "Giving a bribe."

People involved in customs clearance, and the customs officers themselves, are still laughing at the first post-New Year statement by the head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) Andrey Belyaninov. At a meeting with the prime minister, trying to get into the flow of Ukrainian gas, he sternly stated: "If you follow the letter of the law, then gas supplies are almost smuggled." Putin even had to besiege the customs a little, repelling this unexpected run-down on Gazprom. “I understand the concerns of the customs service,” he said, “but the gas that is sent by the Russian gas company to the territory of Ukraine for Western partners cannot be called smuggling.”

Importers are very sorry that in the event of customs raids, not everyone can count on the support of the prime minister.

Having learned how, as an experiment, I tried to import a small batch of dates into Russia (see “New” No. 1 of 01/12/2009), the head of one customs post, recently dismissed, told me how to act so that there would be no problems at customs:

- You approach the deputy head of customs clearance and say: I, they say, want to import nozzles for tractors. He will immediately tell you bluntly: a thousand dollars for a container - and no problem. You start to resent: “But how is it? Yes, here is the Customs Code!” And you go with your code to the issuing inspector, trying to deliver your cargo according to the rules. And the clerk says to you: “You have a getadeshka with a blot in one place.” You're going to rewrite the getadeshka. And the customs office to you: “Something this nozzle does not look like a nozzle. A certificate of conformity is required. You find a certificate. Then there are questions to the invoice *. So a month will pass until you go to that very deputy for registration and say: “Okay, let everything be your way.” He will agree, only the amount will no longer be a thousand, but five thousand. This is a penalty for the stubborn.

Importers of perishable goods, as well as those who care about timing, as a rule, do not bring things to a "penalty for the stubborn". And it is also important for others that the customs time goes faster. For the first three days, customs stores the goods for free, then they charge 4 rubles per kilogram per day. From the sixth day - eight rubles. For example, your cargo weighs 5 tons (there are many of them). Then a week of storage will cost almost three hundred thousand. If you are a small entrepreneur, then you will not grow up to a big one, and do not hope.

If the customs office is not located in Moscow, add a simple transport here (carriers charge a fine for this). As well as a penalty for the failure of the contract with the customer of your product.

Customs officers are well aware of all this. And although the Customs Code provides for the clearance of any cargo within three days, often cargo is delayed at customs for months. Customs asks for some documents, double-checks the authenticity of the goods, requires additional clarification from suppliers. “Could you elaborate on the length of the endless drive belt? I understand all the idiocy of the question, but customs requires ... ".

It is practically impossible to sue the damage from customs. Even if the arbitration confirms that the cargo was unlawfully detained at customs, the recovery of costs is a new lawsuit and another year of going to court.

Now legislators are trying to give customs officers the right to detain cargo beyond the time limits allotted by law, on an ex officio basis - that is, on the mere suspicion that something was wrong with him. Do you have any idea how suspicious customs we have?

Many (not to say most) prefer to carry their goods through large customs with high traffic. The more loaded customs, the better the work of brokers, the easier it is to solve problems informally.

The broker is an important person in speeding up the work of customs. The broker helps to bring the cargo to Russia through offshore offices in order to minimize its cost and, accordingly, the duty that the importer will pay. Brokers probe the limits of cost minimization through customs inspectors. The cost of this service is about a thousand dollars.

Another task of the broker is to make sure that if the UBEP subsequently finds out why the cargo was so cheap, all bribes from its real owner would be smooth. So that there is no reason to arrest either the goods or the accounts.

By the way, many banks that lost their licenses with the official wording “participation in money laundering schemes” actually suffered precisely because they did such things with customs clearance.

An interesting fact: almost all Chinese imports go by sea and clear through customs in Vyborg. Although it would seem more reasonable to import goods through the Far Eastern customs. But Vyborg is a huge window, seven land posts. The largest post - Torfyanovka - passes up to a thousand cars a day. Torfyanovka is also called Great Lent, there are a lot of jokes about this in the corporate environment.

To bring your cargo to Russia without incident, it is not necessary to come to Vyborg yourself and bring some documents. Brokers offer a full range of services, including, in addition to lowering the cost and eliminating paper fuss, also transportation and storage (on the border, on the Finnish side, a huge number of storage warehouses are built).

Legalization of goods through brokers is not burdensome, although it is not cheap. But the legal path will cost you much more. The unofficial tax for passing a car through customs alone is now $400. The carrier immediately includes these $400 in the cost of its services.

Multi-million dollar sums pass through Vyborg brokers. There are rumors in the customs environment that all financial flows are closed to Igor Zavrazhny, deputy head of the Federal Customs Service, and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov. But this is undoubtedly discrediting rumors, because recently even Putin visited Torfyanovka, and he liked everything, he even ordered to expand the post. Would the prime minister praise a criminal point?

And no one transports their goods through the Far Eastern customs - everything is too slow there. For example, Chinese consumer goods (consumer goods) fall under 111 risk profiles*** and are subject to 70 percent screening. This is a long time: Chinese rags are imported to Russia in huge plastic bags, from which the air is completely evacuated so that they take up less space. And now the inspector, according to the law, must disassemble these bags.

Inspection can be avoided by paying the inspection inspector. But then, again, in order to speed up the customs clearance process, you will have to pay a sanitary examination, transport control (which measures the weight of your transport with cargo) and many others. No one offers customs expediting services in the Far East in the complex. And individually, they are all too expensive.

On the fact of previous publications about customs, I received a call from a high-ranking official of the FCS (he asked not to write his last name). We talked about why customs became so isolated - from the law and from all of us.

“You have written the truth here and there,” he agreed. “We have board meetings on a regular basis. We sit and think: how to do it so that the cargo can be processed without unnecessary red tape. So that, as in China: you sit, look at the screen, and it says at what stage your design is, and after an hour you are free. But here we are abolishing something - and in another place even more paperwork is being added ... The import customs clearance system has actually collapsed! Units decide to import consumer goods. And who used to drive, now said: but where did you run into me with your customs? Today, duties on oil provide 45% of the budget of the Federal Customs Service. And oil is falling. By the spring, probably, we will have to completely cancel duties. And how is the Federal Customs Service going to provide for itself, if now the imports that have remained are mainly working in the dark? All fees from the bosses stick to their hands.

* Cargo customs declaration is a document of paramount importance when registering cargo at customs. Contains 54 items relating to the origin and future fate of the cargo. For comparison: the CCD in China contains only four items.

**Customs document containing a list of goods and the price for which they were purchased from the seller.

***Risk profiles are internal customs documents that approve customs control technologies, rules for determining customs value, correct calculation of customs payments, etc.