The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine has asked Ukrainian Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk and Finance Minister of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko to
suspend cabinet resolution No. 724 on the benchmarks of the customs value of
imported goods, the chamber said in a statement forwarded to Interfax-Ukraine.
The chamber said that the concept of “the benchmarks of the customs
value during customs clearance” of imported goods. According to this
resolution, the customs authorities have grounds to apply the benchmarks of the
customs value within the risks management system. That is, these benchmarks
should be used to identify and assess the risks of incorrect determination of
customs value (for example, its understatement) while controlling the
correctness of its determination.
The Chamber said that the resolution does not provide for application of
the benchmarks instead of the declared customs value as the tax base.
Availability of price information for fiscal authorities including the customs
value and other information on previously imported goods is foreseen by the
documents of the World Customs Organization, whereof Ukraine is a member. Such
information may be used by fiscal authorities to only assess the risks, but not
to determine the customs value of imported goods.
In terms of risks management system this regulation has introduced
nothing new. The issue consists in how the benchmarks, approved by the
Resolution, will be applying. Before the Resolution was adopted the customs
authorities also used certain indicators from their internal pricing base in
order to assess risks under the control of correctness of determining the
customs value. But in most cases such control procedures were accomplished by
determination of the declared customs value at a higher level. Thus the pricing
base used to substitute the declared customs value. In such cases the declarant
was unable to ascertain how correctly the customs used its pricing base,
because this information is only available for fiscal authorities.
The Chamber proposed to develop the procedures of use by fiscal and
customs authorities of pricing information, available to them, within risks
management system during the customs clearance of goods. Nontransparent rules
of use of benchmarks by fiscal and customs authorities create the problem. The
Procedures should determine the range of officials responsible for maintaining
the domestic pricing base, mechanism of calculation of the benchmarks, audits
of the correct application of benchmarks during the customs control including
responsibility of officials for the violations, which were found, reforming the
control of correctness of the customs value.
"If fiscal authorities continue the practice of applying the
benchmarks during the determination of customs value, that usually occurs in
direction of their increase, - it will be a gross violation of GATT / WTO
rules. There are tangible grounds for such fears, judging from the sad
experience of fiscal authorities in practice. If fiscal authorities operate in
strict accordance with the legislation, the introduction of benchmarks would
not cause such concern to the business community”, - stated Igor Dankov,
Co-Chair of Customs Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine,
the Leader of EY Ukraine's Customs and International Trade Practice.
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