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Russia adds more offices to TIR ban
[ October 30, 2013 // Chris ]The International Road Transport Union reports that Russia’s Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation has further extended its restrictions on TIR guarantees to the North Caucasian and Southern Customs Regions, as well as the airport Customs offices of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo.
This was despite a ruling by the country’s Supreme Arbitration Court about a fortnight ago that the Customs Service’s actions were illegal.
Russia had been planning to effectively withdraw the TIR system throughout its entire territory in mid-August, before postponing the move twice, first to mid-September and then 1 December over a dispute involving 20 billion roubles-worth of duty (about £400 million) owed to the customs service by carnet-issuing authority, the Association of International Road Carriers. However, since then Russian customs has progressively withdrawn TIR guarantees from individual customs offices, including those in the Far Eastern, Siberian, Ural and Volga Customs regions.
Offices affected by the latest ruling are: Dagestan, Mineralvody, Severo-Osetinskaya, Severo-Kavkazskaya Operativnaya (all North Caucasus region); Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Millerovskaya, Novorosiysk, Rostov, Sochi, Taganrog, Yuzhnaya Operativnaya (all Southern Customs region); plus the airport customs at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo
Although the potential application of these measures is not yet known, Customs offices may refuse to open the TIR procedure in the absence of additional guarantees, says the IRU.