BarentsNews.com

We have already informed our readers about the resolution of the State Custom Committee of Russian Federation regulating the conditions of custom declaring of sea vessels which have been repaired outside the Russian borders.

Before considering the document itself, it is necessary to take a closer look at the Codex of trade seafaring, informed press-service of Murmansk custom. According to this document, the trade seafaring means any activity that involves use of vessels to almost all kind of sea transport, and fishery of aqua bio resources.

According to the resolution of the Custom Committee, if repair costs don’t exceed the book value of the ship, then it’s not necessary to pay any customs or taxes under the arrival to a Russian harbour. Both the captain of the ship and the ship-owner has to present an overview of made repair-work. Further, this information being checked by the custom, and notified, if there is no increase of the book value of the ship.

From now on, ship-owners have to send to the custom office a notice describing the book value of the ship in the beginning and the end of a particular year, whether the ship has crossed the custom border of Russia or not. Furthermore, it has to be sent a notice about place and time of first arrival to a harbour of Russian custom territory. This information has to be presented for the custom before March 31st of the year that follows the year of repair outside Russian Federation.

This document has raised a lot of questions among both ship-owners and custom officers. According to the opinion of custom officers, this resolution doesn’t solve the problem of customs collection regarding repair of sea vessels.