Ministry of Finance: the use of the “single stop” principle at the Ukrainian customs will be improved and made mandatory starting from February 1, 2018

On August 31, a meeting took place at the Ministry of Finance dedicated to the further development and operation of the “single stop” information system. The meeting was chaired by Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk. The meeting was attended by Yuri Draganchuk, advisor to the Minister of Finance, interim Head of the SFS Myroslav Prodan as well as representatives of the customs policy department of the Ministry of Finance and representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry for Natural Resources, State Fiscal Service, State Agency for the Security of Food Supplies, State Ecological Inspection and State Agency for Export Control.

What’s it about?

The discussion was focused on the decision to implement the mandatory “single stop” information system for companies and state bodies starting from February 1, 2018. The Ministry of Finance prepared the corresponding draft decree of the Cabinet of Ministers which will be presented to the Government for examination next week.

The draft decree stipulates a number of changes to the operation of the “single stop” information system. One of the changes is that the “single stop” mechanism will be applied to the movement of goods in all customs regimes (now it is applied for import and export only) as well as to the movement of goods under regular customs declarations and preliminary declarations containing complete goods data (now it is only applied for several types of import and export customs declarations).

Other significant changes are as follows:

• Reduced number of scanned documents thanks to presenting necessary data captured in the preliminary declaration to the controlling authorities;
• Controlling authorities shall have less time available (12 instead of 24 working hours) to decide to examine the goods (currently, controlling bodies can decide to conduct physical check of the goods within 3 days upon receipt of the application);
• Controlling authorities shall have 4 instead of 24 hours to decide on goods which are to leave the customs jurisdiction of Ukraine;
• Controlling authorities will have one more option to reply to applicants, which is “goods are not subject to control”. The reason is that in some cases applicants request the “single stop” procedure by mistake to pass some type of control, whereas their goods are not subject to this control.
Also, the Ministry of Finance will implement monthly monitoring for the use of the “single stop” mechanism by controlling authorities and will establish workshops in the regions of Ukraine to study issues related to the operation of the “single stop” procedures.

What’s the benefit?

The mandatory use of information exchange based on the “single stop” procedure starting from February 1, 2018, will secure equal treatment for companies which use and do not use the system. It will also ensure that state control is conducted physically and not on paper only. Another advantage of the “single stop” procedure is the possibility to assess how fast the customs and other formalities are completed.