OREANDA-NEWS. August 23, 2011. Starting from August 2011, the transport means crossing the Moldovan-Romanian border will be scanned and the data provided by the two countries customs officers will be compared to foil contraband, a head of department of the Moldovan Customs Service, Natalia Calenic, said at a news conference.

Calenic said that besides decreasing the number of smuggling cases, the move will also increase revenues to the state budget. She noted that customs officers had managed to track down a false customs statement worth 35,000 dollars at the Giurgiulesti-Galati customs point due to the comparison of data.

An expert of the European Union's Conciliation and Public Policies Mission, Dorel Fronea, said that the new Moldovan-Romanian cooperation plan has considerably decreased the flow of smuggled cigarettes on the Romanian black market.

The quota of smuggled cigarettes stood at 36 per cent in 2010, 15 per cent in March 2011 and 12 per cent in May 2011. The data were provided by independent Romanian companies.