Owing to the efforts of Pepeliaev Group's lawyers, the Russian Federal Customs Service has reimbursed to our client interest on excess customs payments recovered by it

The lawyers of Pepeliaev Group’s customs practice have successfully completed a project that involved protecting the interests of our client, a major Russian shipping company, before the Russian Supreme Court's Judicial Panel for Economic Disputes. A year after the court decided in favour of the client, owing to the efforts of our lawyers, the Federal Customs Service transferred to the client interest of almost RUB 50 million on excess customs payments it recovered. 

It is worth reminding the reader that the case concerned a customs audit resulting in the customs office’s decision that the client had violated the terms and conditions of the customs procedure of temporary import of a tanker in connection with entering into a time charter contract for such tanker. This decision resulted in the company being charged more than RUB 220 million. The client appealed this decision in the Krasnodar Territory Commercial (‘Arbitration’) Court, which decided in favour of the Company (Case No. А32-9485/2016). By the resolution of the appeal court the decision was left unchanged, but the North-Caucasian Circuit Commercial (‘Arbitration’) Court quashed the judgments of the lower-level courts and handed down a resolution in favour of the customs office. The Judicial Panel for Economic Disputes of the Russian Supreme Court accepted the circuit court’s resolution for review and, after examining the client’s complaint, cancelled such resolution and upheld the decisions of the first instance court and of court of appeal.