The customs posts Sculeni, Chisinau and Tudora will pilot the electronic clearance of imported goods during six months, starting with September 1. The system will be extended to all the customs posts of Moldova from 2015.

“This is a great advantage for economic entities because the electronic statement is submitted one hour before the units of transport loaded with goods are to enter the country,” senior inspector of the Sculeni Customs Post Petru Nuca has told IPN.

Earlier, the companies performing import operations were to submit the documents required for clearance at the entrance to the country, at the internal customs post. Now they can submit the necessary package of documents to the customs broker by fax or email. When the goods enter the country, the statement is already at the customs post.

The statement is redirected to the green, yellow or red customs corridor, depending on the risk analysis data, type of goods, carrier, etc. In the case of the green corridor, clearance lasts for several minutes and is performed at the border crossing point only. The clearance procedure will remain unchanged yet for those going through the yellow or red customs corridor. This refers to economic entities with violations in the risk analysis database. They will go through the old clearance procedure at internal customs posts.

Petru Nuca said electronic clearance allows reducing the time needed for obtaining clearance documents at the customs post and swifter delivering the goods. Import costs are projected to halve.

After the electronic export statement service was launched on March 1 this year, the share of electronic exports at all the customs posts rose to 25% of the total imports.