National Automated System of Electronic Declaration (NASED)

Customs clearance that uses electronic customs documents focuses on:

reduction of the time spent on customs operations to release goods thanks to digital information exchange between traders and customs authorities of the Republic of Belarus;

introduction of the declarative principle to release goods using information from electronic customs declarations and electronic customs transit documents;

transparency of the customs procedure with regard to goods;

reduction of time and financial cost of customs operations for traders;

prevention of corruption by ruling out personal contacts between customs officials and traders;

minimization of subjective factors, errors or abuse of office in customs operations.

The main components of customs clearance that uses electronic customs documents are:

the technical capability to present electronic customs documents to customs authorities;

placement and presence of goods, which are submitted to customs clearance using digital documents, in customs control zones until release operations are complete;

submission of the customs documents required to release goods in digital form;

absence of the need to confirm digital customs documents data except when the risk management system requires customs personnel to request hardcopies of the necessary documents for customs control operations;

decision making of customs authorities to release goods using information from digital customs documents;

verification of digital customs documents data regarding the payment of customs charges and observance of import and export restrictions on economic and non-economic grounds via interaction between the information system of the customs service and information systems of relevant ministries, agencies, and banks;

application of customs control operations using digital customs documents data to verify declared digital customs data purely upon decisions of the risk management system;

presentation of customs clearance results in the form of digital customs documents.

To submit an e-declaration, including via the National Automated System of Electronic Declaration (NASED), one needs to:

1. Have the necessary software and hardware to exchange electronic documents with the customs services of the Republic of Belarus;

1. Have the Internet access and data carriers compatible with the software and hardware of the verifying center of the customs services;

1. Subscribe to the verifying center of the customs services;

1. Provide valid and accurate information for customs clearance and registration of statistical declarations using e-documents.

The following requirements should be met to use the National Automated System of Electronic Declaration for customs clearance and registration of statistical declarations:

1. Documents used to fill in an electronic customs declaration (if they were not submitted to the customs services before) should be attached to an e-declaration if commodity items are subject to customs controls. The choice of customs controls is determined by the risk management system and is applied in the following cases:

if commodity items are subject to customs, tax or tariff preferences; 

if the rates of import customs duties applied to commodity items are different from those stipulated by the Single Customs Tariff of the Customs Union;

in the event of temporary import (access), temporary export, processing on the customs territory, processing outside the customs territory, processing for domestic use;

if basic and additional checks of the customs value of commodity items are required by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

1. Storage of goods and customs clearance related to the release of goods of authorized economic operators might be held on the premises of authorized economic operators.

1. If economic operators submit statistical declarations and periodic statistical declarations in an electronic form, they do not need to attach documents that were used to fill in these declarations.

Milestones of Belarus’ electronic declaration system

The National Automated System of Electronic Declaration was developed jointly with the National Academy of Sciences as part of Task No. 28 of the Electronic Belarus government program.

In May 2008 a NASED pilot zone was set up. In July 2008 the experiment with e-declarations for exported goods was launched. The experiment helped identify and eliminate technical and technological issues. Initially only two companies, Keramin and Minsk Motor Plant, and a limited number of customs clearance offices, took part in the project. In October 2008 ten companies joined the experiment, in April 2009 their number reached 27.

In May 2009, all entities possessing the status “Bona fide participant of foreign economic activity” were allowed to take part in the experiment.  After the customs authorities completed work to introduce and expand the NASED pilot zone, the National Automated System of Electronic Declaration was put into permanent operation.

In October 2009, the customs authorities started to execute procedures of temporary export and re-export in the National Automated System of Electronic Declaration.

As of 1 November 2009, more than 75% of export shipments were processed using electronic customs documents.

Legal persons no longer need to submit the documents confirming the information stated in electronic customs documents. This is the essence of the declaratory principle of placing goods under customs procedure. This was made possible following the relevant legislation that abolished the requirement to attach supplementary documents if customs declarations are submitted in a electronic form.

In March 2010, the customs authorities of the Republic of Belarus started digital processing of goods to be placed under the customs procedure for release for domestic use for entities that have the status "Bona fide participant of foreign economic activity".

In April 2010, the customs authorities of Belarus completed the work on a single central resource, which accumulates the electronic information stated in the licenses (permits) issued by the Trade Ministry, Interior Ministry, the Healthcare Ministry, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. 

In May 2010, the customs authorities started processing notifications of placing of goods in the customs control zone in the electronic declaration system.

In July 2010, the customs authorities started registration of import statistics and periodic statistical declarations in the form of electronic documents.

In September 2010, the customs authorities introduced electronic customs document "Declaration of customs value" based on the first method of estimation of customs cost.

At the beginning of September 2010, the customs authorities started executing customs procedures of temporary export, re-export, the release for domestic use and registration of statistical declarations (export and import) in the electronic declaration system.

In October 2010, the customs authorities lifted the restrictions regarding the use of the electronic declaration system in the customs procedure of release for domestic use for entities that have the status “Bona fide participant of foreign economic activity".

On 8 December 2010, by resolution No. 494 the Commission of the Custom Union approved the instruction on the submission and use of the customs declaration in the form of an electronic document approved by the decision of the Commission of the Customs Union which read that submission, use, and storage of electronic customs declarations are governed by national legislation of the Member State of the Customs Union.

On 1 January 2011 new forms and structure of declarations for goods and transit declarations were introduced in the electronic declaration system in accordance with the decisions of the Commission of the Customs Union.

On 18 July 2011 Belarus President’s Decree No. 319 “Concerning certain issues of customs regulation, customs activities and approved economic operators” enforced the declaratory principle in e-declaration for all economic agents regardless the status of the approved economic operator. Thus, Subclause 2.3 of the Decree determines the cases where documents which make basis of a customs e-declaration should be presented to the customs body. In all other cases the presentation of the documents are not necessary.

By late 2011 the efforts embraced by the customs services to develop and improve the system of electronic declaration resulted in a widened use of electronic customs documents.

As of late December 2011 over 82% of all export and 50% of import deliveries were processed using e-declarations. Temporary export procedures accounted for nearly 90% of the total procedures, re-export for 65%, the number of registered electronic statistical declarations for 83%. The amount of the free customs zone procedures exceeded 56%. The overall percentage of the registration using electronic customs documents made up 60% of the total amount of registered documents by the end of 2011, up 24% from 2010. In late 2011 the average time spent on customs operations using the e-declaration system in export, re-export, temporary export, customs transit, free customs zone was about 15 minutes, down 30 minutes from the beginning of the year.

In 2011:

1. more customs operations were executed with the help of electronic customs documents in placing the goods under customs procedures of re-import, the free customs zone and the customs warehouse;
2. the overall amount of e-documents reached 60% of the total number of registered documents;
3. the average time spent on the customs operations using the e-declaration system was narrowed to 15 minutes.

Among the major objectives to improve and the e-declaration system in 2012 are:

1. to execute additional customs operations using electronic customs documents when placing the goods under the customs procedure of abandonment in favor of the State, destruction, temporary import, processing for domestic use, processing in the customs territory, processing outside the customs territory;

1. to reach 70% in the use of electronic customs documents;

- to keep the average time spent on customs operations using the e-declaration system not exceeding 15 minutes.