OREANDA-NEWS. The new regulations on the transit of goods by individuals are meant to eliminate grey schemes, Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian State Customs Committee (SCC) Sergei Borisyuk told on May 13.

According to him, the regulations of the border transit of the personal use goods will be optimized beginning from May 15, 2008. The SCC has distributed recommendations on the unification of the procedures on the determination of the type of goods. This scheme is based on the principle of authority distribution between customs officials. “It all depends on the frequency of crossing the border and on the status in which individuals travel”, he said.

Sergei Borisyuk explained that there will be no changes for people who work abroad and for drivers who carry out international transportations. The new regulations will not affect tourists who go abroad once in three months. Thus the new rules will not apply to those individuals who carry goods that are not related to manufacturing or commercial activities.

“However if an individual crosses the border more than once in three months and the goal of their trips is related to business, the import regulations for this category of people will change drastically”, he noted. In particular, if an individual crosses the state border more than once in a week, they can import only one item of the same category of goods. However, the decision on the possible import of goods will be taken by customs officials.

“We keep saying that people living close to the border often use this opportunity for commercial purposes; they transport commercial goods in disguise of their personal property”, he stated. On the territory of the adjoining states these consignments of goods are split to fit the Belarusian regulations. There have been incidents when the citizens of the frontier regions crossed the state border several times a day and transported 30-50 kg of goods. Among the most common transit goods are foodstuffs and convenience goods.

“I do not want to be specific, but the state suffers considerable losses”, the SCC representative underlined.

This is why these measures are meant to eliminate grey schemes of transit of goods, Sergei Borisyuk said. “There will be no new queues at the border and the existing ones will reduce”, he added.