The State Customs Committee (SCC) has completed the development of a new Customs Code and will soon submit it for public discussion, Kun.uz correspondent reports citing a source in the committee.
“To date, we have already completed the development of the code and are preparing to submit it for public discussion. It has been worked out for more than 6 months. We have studied the customs experience of many countries, especially the European Union. Our code will comply with the Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs procedures” the source said.
According to him, this was done to save the country the burden and troubles of introducing changes to the code and other documents after its accession to the World Trade Organization.
“We have completely changed the structure of the customs code, the conceptual apparatus. One of the main innovations is that it has become much more understandable to a non-specialist. The current code, unfortunately, is rather complicated. In the new one, we changed the style of writing, everything is short and clear,” he stressed.
In addition, the representative of the State Customs Committee noted, the code introduces for the first time the concept of an institution that allows citizens to appeal over customs authority’s decisions.
“This is a very good tool for entrepreneurs. Now anyone can appeal to the institution over decisions of customs officers. This will allow to develop a pre-trial settlement, help the entrepreneurs to save time and money,” he said.
The code also focuses on the processing regime, which is currently used very little in the country.
“In our practice, there is processing in the customs territory and processing outside the customs territory. For the development of the country, these two regimes are very important. For example, in China’s trade, these regimes are more than 40%, and in Uzbekistan - 1% and for the most part used by domestic giants - NMMC, AMMC, etc. In the new customs code, we clearly indicated that an entrepreneur without any feasibility studies and extra permits can safely use these modes for the production of goods,” he concluded.
