Various orders of the Customs Service are applied with breaches to the relevant effective legislation. This conclusion belongs to State Commission’s task force for the regulation of entrepreneurial activity, who has discussed and supported a bill on the abolition of those orders, reports Info-Prim Neo. The group is made up of central public authorities and representatives of the business sector. Head of the Commercial Policies Division of the Ministry of Economy Inga Ionesi said that the bill was elaborated based on the half-year report regarding the elimination of non-tariff commercial barriers, in accordance with a Government decision from 2011. “Many of the Customs Service’s orders, such as the procedure applicable to postal shipments, the clearance method for goods purchased in free trade zones, of a category of trade goods and vehicles, Regulation on trusted entrepreneurs and others, are not published in the Official Gazette. There are ordinances that had been cancelled by the Customs Services at the request of entrepreneurs, but new ones were invented instead, without informing the business community about them; hence, a breach in the transparency principle stipulated by national legislation as well as the World Trade Organization norms”, mentioned Inga Ionesi. The entrepreneurs, who present at the Task Force’s meeting, pointed that some ordinances had a declarative character, and had hard-to-follow demands. The Regulation on the home clearance process was given as an example. Because of the terms imposed, very few entrepreneurs can truly benefit from the provision of this regulation. Dumitru Albulesa, councillor for the International Association of Road Hauliers of Moldova (AITA), said that these national ordinances deeply affect international haulers, and their work regime, which is strictly monitored in countries towards which the goods are transported. The Customs Service also imposes fees that are not stipulated by any official paperwork. “The Fiscal Code stipulates a fee of 26 lei for the weigh-in of a vehicle; haulers pay 40 lei. Everyone pays, albeit knowing it is not correct. They know, just as well, that an ordinance is null, unless published in the Official Gazette. Yet, they comply. What else can they do, if they need to cross the border? Not only the bad roads, but these artificial barriers too made transit through Moldova decrease substantially”, mentioned the AITA councilor. Dina Armasu of the Foreign Investors Association supported the bill, but added that it wouldn’t be functional unless customs employees who violated the Law are sanctioned. “It is unreasonable to count only on the good will of the Customs Service, we need guarantees that those who don’t abide the transparency principle and don’t coordinate internal normative changes with the Task Force will be punished”, pointed Dina Armasu. Representatives of the Customs Service and the Ministry of Finance, to which the former subordinates, did not attend the Task Force meeting, saying that they were busy in the Parliament, where the budgetary-fiscal policy bill for the following year was being examined.