Customs “front offices” start to work from 1 February

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- From 1 February  2019, the first front office of the Tashkent-AERO specialized customs complex began functioning at the customs posts of the departments of the State Customs Committee for Tashkent region and Tashkent city.

The project was implemented within the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On additional measures to improve customs administration and increase the efficiency of the State Customs Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan” dated 24 November 2018.

As part of the implementation of the Decree, within a short period of time, the State Customs Committee carried out the relevant organizational and legal work. The “front office” was equipped with special workplaces, computer equipment and other necessary items at customs posts.

At the initial stage, about 60 employees from the front office were selected from hundreds of candidates on a competitive basis. In order to further improve the quality of services provided by the employees of the “front offices”, they will also undergo training for one month at the Customs Institute of the State Customs Committee.

The «front offices” will provide services for completing a cargo customs declaration to participants in foreign economic activity. Most importantly, these services will be provided free of charge. Simply put, in order to fill out a customs cargo declaration, an entrepreneur just needs to directly contact the front office employee, provide all the documents necessary for this process, the necessary goods code for the foreign trade nomenclature, and information about the customs value .

The declaration is completed by the employee "front office" and with the help of special software. Then the entrepreneur submits a ready-made declaration, confirmed by his electronic digital signature, to the customs authorities through an appropriate information system.

Until 1 July 2018, only customs clearance specialists with an appropriate qualification certificate had the right to fill in and submit to the customs authorities. This meant that the entrepreneur had to first contact the customs brokers, and then pay for the services provided.

And from 1 July 2018, entrepreneurs were also given the right to fill out a customs cargo declaration and submit them to customs authorities on their own. However, given the fact that not all entrepreneurs have the same potential, the “front office” is especially important for business representatives, especially foreign trade, who are just beginning to engage in export and import operations.

As part of the initial project, the responsibility for the accuracy of the information and documents provided to fill in the customs cargo declaration is assigned to the participant in foreign economic activity. According to the results of the project, its implementation in the other regional customs administrations is also planned.