A new form of customs declaration will be introduced to the business in November in Ukraine

UkrAgroConsult

From November 7, 2020, a new electronic form of the unified pre-arrival customs declaration will be introduced in Ukraine. This is a completely new form of document that carriers must fill out before crossing the Ukrainian border, and which will foster the harmonization of Ukrainian customs legislation with EU norms and requirements.

At the same time, the business has concerns regarding this situation because there are currently no regulations that would clearly regulate the changed processes for the business. Thus, the content of the declaration has not been approved yet. The draft is available on the website of the Ministry of Finance, and the procedure for its submission has not yet been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Customs Code provides for the liability for not submitting a declaration as it is considered to be a violation.

Also, the procedure for submitting such documents by foreign carriers or their representatives remains completely unresolved, as the draft document appeals only to the Ukrainian form of such a declaration without the English version of the document. Besides, such areas of cargo import as air, sea, and rail are not covered, and the data format is not agreed with the sea carriers or their agents.

Therefore, the European Business Association calls on the Ministry of Finance and the State Customs Service to pay attention to the lack of preparation for the implementation of the declaration. Thus, the community is asking to speed up the process of agreeing on the declaration form and to provide an English version of the declaration. Besides, it is necessary to provide a trial period for filing declarations, so that companies can gradually adjust their operational processes. Then from November 7, companies can start with filing a declaration in the new form, however, filing a declaration in the old form should not be considered a violation. (possibility to use the previous forms of customs declarations and information of maritime agents in electronic form in parallel with the unified pre-arrival customs declaration according to the Order № 308 of the Ministry of Finance of March 10, 2015).

European Business Association