The rates of customs charges are reduced by 25% when customs declarations are filed electronically

Pepeliaev Group advises that additions have been made to the Russian Government’s Resolution No. 863 dated 28 December 2004, under which the rates of customs charges are reduced by 25% when a declaration is filed electronically. Further, companies have been given the right to have returned to them the corresponding amounts they have overpaid since 21 August 2012.

Under the Russian Government’s Resolution No. 1286 dated 12 December 2012 On amending the Russian Government’s Resolution No. 863 dated 28 December 2004, when goods are declared electronically, the rates of customs charges for customs operations are applied at 75% of the rates set for customs charges. Thus, when a declaration is filed electronically, the base rates of customs charges set by the Russian Government’s Resolution No. 863 dated 28 December 2004 On the rates of customs charges for customs operations are reduced by a quarter. 

The amendments will come into force on 18 January 2013 and have effect in relation to legal relationships that arise from 21 August 2012.

Information from PG. Reducing the rates of customs charges for customs operations is a result of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. According to WTO rules, the amount of a customs charge that must be paid may not exceed the approximate cost to customs authorities of undertaking the actions in relation to which the customs charge is set. Regardless of the fact that the same principle has also been contained in the legislation of the Customs Union since before Russia’s accession to the WTO, the Russian Federation has given an additional undertaking to set “lower fixed rates of charges for customs clearance of goods using electronic declarations or other simplified methods of filing them so as to ensure compliance with the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO” .  

The new rule for calculating customs payments allows future expenses on paying customs charges to be reduced when an electronic declaration procedure is used. It is important to be aware that the rules for making declarations electronically  mean that, to reduce the rate of a customs charge, it is sufficient for the declaration of goods to be filed electronically while at the same time all other documents necessary to declare the goods for customs purposes may be submitted to a customs authority in hard copy form. 

Moreover, companies are allowed to have reimbursed by the state amounts of customs charges they have already paid. Alternatively, these may be set off against future payments, since the rule reducing the rates of customs charges has retroactive effect, extending to legal relationships that arise from 21 August 2012. 

The procedure for the reimbursement or offset of customs charges paid in excess is regulated by Federal Law No. 311-FZ dated 27 November 2010 On customs regulation in the Russian Federation. To have customs charges paid in excess reimbursed or offset, a payer must, within three years following payment of the charges, file with the customs authority an application, in which the goods are declared, to have the amounts of customs charges reimbursed or offset. The application for reimbursement must correspond to the set form , and moreover it must have annexed to it the documents referred to in article 147 of the Federal Law On customs regulation. If the payer’s application complies in full with the necessary requirements, the customs authority will reimburse the excess of the customs charge paid within a month of the application being filed. 

The lawyers in Pepeliaev Group’s customs practice are ready to assist on matters relating to the procedure of declaring goods electronically, paying customs charges and having them reimbursed (offset). They will also handle the process of obtaining a refund of excess customs charges paid or levied, and offer an integrated assessment of the implications for those involved in cross-border trade of Russia’s accession to the WTO.