Q&A: Humanitarian activities in Belarus

Question 1. Use of toll roads in the Republic of Belarus by vehicles delivering humanitarian aid. How can I get an exemption from tall fee? What documents are required?

Answer:

The Department of Humanitarian Affairs at the Belarus President Property Management Directorate files a petition with the Belavtostrada state agency to register vehicles transporting humanitarian aid from foreign organizations with the electronic fee collection system as vehicles exempt from toll payment in the Republic of Belarus.

Recipients of humanitarian aid shall inform the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in advance of the estimated time and place of border crossing, send accurate information about the vehicle and its owner (See the Annex) and supply their contact information for the feedback (to get notification about the issue of non-tolling onboard devices).

Annex:

Information about the vehicle and its owner required by Belavtostrada:

- company name
- TIN; country; region; city; street
- building number; postcode; manager name
- manager name; position
- country code; area code
- phone; fax
- vehicle data: make (model)
- vehicle type
- gross weight (for trucks)
- number of axles; year of manufacture
- technical certificate number
- vehicle identification number
- data on metallic windscreen

Question 2. How are goods imported as foreign gratuitous aid cleared at the customs?

Answer:

The State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – SCC) has issued explanations regarding customs clearance of goods (property) imported as foreign gratuitous aid (letter No. 02-10/5998 from 28 June 2018).

1. Specifics of customs declaring of foreign gratuitous aid as it is placed under customs procedure for transit.

In accordance with Subparagraph 2.1, Paragraph 2, Resolution No.1374 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of 14 October 2011 “On some issues of customs regulation, amendments and additions to some resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus and annulment of certain resolutions of the Council of Ministers”, no guarantee for the fulfillment of the obligation for payment of customs duties and taxes shall be required in respect of foreign goods placed under the customs procedure for transit providing: the customs body of the Republic of Belarus is the customs authority of departure and the customs authority of destination; the goods are foreign gratuitous aid; the SCC has been notified about their recipients by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs at the Belarus President Property Management Directorate (hereinafter – the Department).

When goods are placed under the customs procedure for transit, the customs body of departure shall be submitted with a transit declaration stating the information as spelled out in Article 107 of the EAEU Customs Code (hereinafter - EAEU Customs Code) and with the documents confirming data declared in a customs declaration (EAEU Customs Code, Article 108).

For reference: Transport, commercial and (or) other documents may be submitted to the customs body of departure as a transit declaration.

Article 107. Data to be Specified in the Transit Declaration

The following data shall be specified in a transit declaration:
1) the sender and recipient of the goods in accordance with transport (shipping) documents, the declarant, the carrier;
2) the country of departure and country of destination of goods;
3) the vehicle carrying goods;
4) the name, quantity and value of goods in accordance with commercial, transport (shipping) documents;
5) the code of goods in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity at the level of at least first 6 digits. In respect of goods (components of goods) moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form within a period by one or more vehicles it is possible to specify the code of the goods in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity at the level of at least 10 digits under an advanced ruling made in respect of such goods on their classification or a ruling on the classification of goods moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form;
6) the gross weight of goods or gross volume, as well as the quantity of goods in additional units of measurement if the Common Customs Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union in respect of the declared goods sets an additional unit of measurement for every code of the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity;
7) number of units of cargo;
8) place of destination of goods in accordance with commercial, transport (shipping) documents;
9) compliance with prohibitions and restrictions in accordance with Article 7 of the Code;
10) proposed transshipment of goods or cargo operations along the way.

Article 108. Documents Confirming Data Declared in a Customs Declaration
1. Documents confirming data declared in the customs declaration include:
1) documents confirming the performance of a transaction with goods and in the absence of such a transaction, other documents confirming the right of ownership, use and/or disposal of goods, as well as other commercial documents available to the declarant;
2) transport (shipping) documents;
3) documents confirming the powers of the person submitting the customs declaration;
4) documents confirming compliance with prohibitions and restrictions, trade remedies;
5) documents on the origin of goods;
6) documents confirming characteristics of goods used to classify them in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity, an advance ruling on the classification of goods, if available, and in the case of the customs declaring of goods (components) moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form, in accordance with the customs procedure for transit, an advance ruling on the classification of goods adopted by the customs authority of any Member State in respect of such goods or a ruling on the classification of goods moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form.
7) documents confirming the payment of customs duties, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties and/or the ensuring the fulfillment of the obligation for payment of customs duties, taxes, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties;
8) documents confirming compliance with the objectives and terms of granting customs payments exemptions;
9) documents confirming the change of time period for payment of customs duties, taxes;
10) documents confirming the declared customs value of goods, including its amount and the method of determining the customs value of goods;
11) a document on the registration and national affiliation of the vehicle for international transportation in case of transportation of goods by road as they are placed under the customs procedure for transit;
12) documents confirming conditions of the placement of goods under the declared customs procedures;
13) documents confirming the declared cost of processing operations when goods are placed under the customs procedure for release for internal consumption of products obtained from processing goods placed under the customs procedure for processing outside the customs territory;
14) documents indicated in Article 261 of this Code.

2. If the documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article do not contain data confirming the data declared in the customs declaration, such data shall be confirmed by other documents.

3. At the time of submission of the customs declaration the declarant shall possess documents confirming the data declared in the customs declaration, except when based on the features of the customs declaring of goods established by the legislation of the Member States on customs regulation in accordance with paragraph 8 of Article 104 of this Code or Articles 114 to 117 of this Code, such documents may be missing at the time of submission of the customs declaration.

In accordance with Article 81 of the EAEU Customs Code, customs operations in respect of humanitarian aid shall be carried out using priority procedure.

Measures to ease customs declaring of foreign gratuitous aid in the form of goods (property) in the customs procedure for transit with respect to foreign gratuitous aid (goods in festive small-sized wrapping intended for distribution between individuals during the festive charity actions (events)) were reviewed at a joint meeting of the customs services of the Member States of the Customs Union.

Before the Customs Union Commission made amendments to Resolution No.289 of 18 June 2010 "On the form and procedure of filling the transit declaration" (hereinafter – Resolution), taking into account the fact that these categories of goods are imported into the EAEU customs territory for non-commercial purposes and are used in charity events, the SCC provided for a possibility of customs declaring of such goods in the customs procedure for transit by putting figures "999999" in Box 33 of the transit declaration instead of the EAEU Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity classification code subject the following conditions are met:

1. Goods are placed under customs procedure for transit until they reach the customs body of destination in the Republic of Belarus;
2. Information about the recipient of the goods is listed in the registry of recipients of foreign goods having the nature of foreign gratuitous aid placed under the customs procedure for transit without providing a guarantee for the fulfillment of the obligation for the payment of customs duties, taxes;
3. Recipient and carrier of the goods placed under the customs procedure for transit have had no record of failing to fulfill the obligation for the payment of customs duties, interests and penalties;
4. Common names of the goods included in gift sets are indicated in Box 31 of the transit declaration;
5. Products, which are part of gift sets, are not prohibited and are not limited to import into customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union;
6. Goods are imported collectively as part of the cargo, wrapped in festive small-sized packages, are intended for distribution among individuals during festive charity actions (events) and are listed in the transport (shipping) or commercial documents as gift sets.

After placing the goods under the customs procedure for transit the goods shall be delivered to the departmental customs clearance point designated by the customs body to complete the customs procedure of transit and to carry out customs operations of customs declaring of the goods and their release in accordance with the declared customs procedure.

2. Specifics of customs declaring of foreign gratuitous aid as it is placed under the customs procedure for the release for internal consumption

Terms of the placement of goods under the customs procedure for release for internal consumption are spelled out in Article 135 of the EAEU Customs Code. When placing goods under customs procedure for the release for internal consumption, the declarant must submit the customs body with a declaration which must contain the information set out in the EAEU Customs Code Article 106.

Article 106. Information to be specified in the declaration of goods
1.A goods declaration shall contain information about:
1) declared customs procedure;
2) declarant, the customs broker, the sender, the recipient, the seller and the buyer of goods;
3) vehicles for international transportation as well as vehicles that transported goods (will transport goods) within the customs territory of the Union;
4) goods:
their name, description required for the calculation and collection of customs duties, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties and other fees collected by the customs authorities to ensure compliance with prohibitions and restrictions, trade remedies, measures to protect intellectual property rights by customs authorities, identification, attribution to one 10-digit code of the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity;
origin of goods;
name of the country of departure and the country of destination;
manufacturer of goods;
trademark;
geographical indications of goods, which is an intellectual property object included in the common customs registry of intellectual property of the Member States and/or the national customs registry of intellectual property maintained by the customs authority of that Member State to the customs authority of which a declaration for goods is submitted;
description of packages;
price, quantity in kilograms (gross weight and net weight) and in additional units of measurement;
customs value of the goods (figure, method of determining the customs value of goods);
statistical cost;

5) calculation of customs duties, safeguard, anti-dumping, countervailing duties:
rates of customs duties, taxes, customs duties, safeguard, anti-dumping, countervailing duties;
customs payments exemptions;
tariff preferences;
calculated amounts of customs duties, taxes, customs fees, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties;
the exchange rate used to calculate customs duties, taxes, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties in accordance with this Code.
6) transaction with the goods and its conditions;
7) compliance with prohibitions and restrictions in accordance with Article 7 of the Code;
8) compliance with terms of the placement of goods under the customs
procedure;
9) documents confirming data stated in a declaration for goods specified in Article 108 of the Code;
10) documents confirming compliance with the legislation of the member states, which the customs authorities are supposed to oversee;
11) the person who filled in the goods declaration and the date it was compiled;
12) other kinds of information determined by the Commission.

2. When determining the procedure for filling in the goods declaration form, the Commission has the right to reduce the amount of information the goods declaration is supposed to contain depending on the customs procedure, categories of goods, persons transporting them across the customs border of the Union, and (or) the mode of transport by which the goods are transported (shipped).

Documents confirming the information stated in the customs declaration are stipulated by Article 108 of the EAEU Customs Code.

Article 108. Documents Confirming Data Declared in a Customs Declaration
1. Documents confirming data declared in the customs declaration include:
1) documents confirming the performance of a transaction with goods
and in the absence of such a transaction, other documents confirming the
right of ownership, use and/or disposal of goods, as well as other commercial
documents available to the declarant;
2) transport (shipping) documents;
3) documents confirming the powers of the person submitting the
customs declaration;
4) documents confirming compliance with prohibitions and restrictions,
trade remedies;
5) documents on the origin of goods;
6) documents confirming characteristics of goods used to classify them in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity, an advance ruling on the classification of goods, if available, and in the case of the customs declaring of goods (components) moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form, in accordance with the customs procedure for transit, an advance ruling on the classification of goods adopted by the customs authority of any Member State in respect of such goods or a ruling on the classification of goods moved across the customs border of the Union in unassembled or disassembled form, including in incomplete or uncompleted form.
7) documents confirming the payment of customs duties, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties and/or the ensuring the fulfilment of the obligation for payment of customs duties, taxes, safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing duties;
8) documents confirming compliance with the objectives and terms of granting customs payments exemptions;
9) documents confirming the change of time period for payment of customs duties, taxes;
10) documents confirming the declared customs value of goods, including its amount and the method of determining the customs value of goods;
11) a document on the registration and national affiliation of the vehicle for international transportation in case of transportation of goods by road as they are placed under the customs procedure for transit;
12) documents confirming conditions of the placement of goods under the declared customs procedures;
13) documents confirming the declared cost of processing operations when goods are placed under the customs procedure for release for internal consumption of products obtained from processing goods placed under the customs procedure for processing outside the customs territory;
14) documents indicated in Article 261 of this Code.

2. If the documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article do not contain data confirming the data declared in the customs declaration, such data shall be confirmed by other documents.

3. At the time of submission of the customs declaration the declarant shall possess documents confirming the data declared in the customs declaration, except when based on the features of the customs declaring of goods established by the legislation of the Member States on customs regulation in accordance with paragraph 8 of Article 104 of this Code or Articles 114 to 117 of this Code, such documents may be missing at the time of submission of the customs declaration.

Belarusian customs regulations have certain specifics of customs declaring of foreign gratuitous aid.

Thus, in accordance with Council of Ministers Resolution No.509 “On measures to implement the law of the Republic of Belarus on customs regulation in the Republic of Belarus” (hereinafter - Resolution No.509) of 27 May 2014 in the course of customs declaring of goods imported into the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union, classified as foreign gratuitous aid and exempted (to be exempted) from customs payments:

one can submit as a commercial document an inventory of goods certified by the sender of foreign gratuitous aid (subparagraph 2.3 of paragraph 2 of Resolution No.509);

In the absence of such an inventory with information about the goods being transported, the State Customs Committee considers it possible to use a copy of the act of acceptance of foreign gratuitous aid in the form established by Belarus President Property Management Directorate Resolution No.2 “On establishing forms of documents” of 8 February 2016 with an endorsement from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs at the Belarus President Property Management Directorate.

- if such goods are not subject to Eurasian Economic Union import restrictions, in column 31 “Cargo spaces and goods description” of the goods declaration one does not have to specify parameters of the goods (including brand, model, etc.) sufficient for their identification and classification in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity of the Eurasian Economic Union, if such goods are imported as part of groupage cargoes in festive small-sized wrapping, are intended for distribution between individuals during festive charity events and are listed in transport (shipping) or commercial documents as gift sets (paragraph seven, subparagraph 2.3-1, paragraph 2 of Resolution No.509);
- when they are placed under the customs procedure of release for domestic consumption, columns 20 “Terms of delivery”, 23 “Exchange rates” and 47 “Calculation of payments” of the goods declaration can be skipped (paragraph 32, sub-paragraph 2.3-1 of provision 2 of Resolution No.509).
In accordance with sub-clause 36.2 of clause 36 of the Resolution, when using tax benefits defined in the first part of clause 31 of the Resolution, in the course of the customs declaration of foreign gratuitous aid the recipients are supposed to submit to the customs authority:
a copy of the certificate containing information about the established types of tax benefits;
a copy of the plan for the intended use (distribution) of the foreign gratuitous aid in the form established by the Belarus President Property Management Directorate and endorsed by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs;
a copy of the document confirming the receipt of the goods (property) by the recipient while specifying its name, quantity and value.

Question 3: What are general expenses of the organization?

Answer:

When earmarking foreign gratuitous aid to pay for general expenses [in accordance with the intended use (distribution) of aid and with consent of the Department for Humanitarian Affairs at the Belarus President Property Management Directorate], organizations shall bear in mind that general expenses are the expenses related to the management of an organization and ensuring its activities.

General expenses include:

• expenses for labor remuneration of managers, administrative staff, workers servicing the organization and property of the general economic purpose, compulsory insurance contributions to the Social Security Fund at the Labor and Social Security Ministry of Belarus and compulsory accident insurance fees;
• expenses for the purchase, maintenance and servicing of fixed assets;
• expenses for the purchase, maintenance and servicing of individual items of floating assets, the purchase of stationery, form sheets, etc.;
• expenses related to the temporary possession of property under a lease agreement (temporary possession and use of property under a finance lease contract (leasing); utility costs;
• expenses for remuneration to copyright holders for the use of intellectual property;
• business-related travel expenses; expenses for communication services, including access to the Internet;
• expenses for banking services;
• expenses for occupational safety and personnel training (retraining); expenses for consulting, information, auditing and other services of outside organizations;
• taxes and fees that make part of general expenses in accordance with the Law on Accounting and Reporting.

General restrictions arising from Article 131 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus should be taken into account in the taxation of general expenses.

The expenses required to administer the statutory activities of the organizations [paid from membership dues] and also the costs to be charged, in accordance with accounting rules, to the value of objects shall not be taken into account in taxation.