The Council on the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality recommends to the government to review the set of documents that the applicant must present for tax and customs facilities when importing means of transportation for special purposes. The Council issued this recommendation following a request from a group of people with locomotor disabilities. They complained that, although the law provides, they cannot benefit from the offered tax and customs facilities.
The Council found that the name of some documents used in the normative acts for obtaining the facilities is different from the one stipulated in the normative act regarding the determination of disability. The lack of uniformity disadvantages people with locomotor disabilities, whose confirmatory documents have a different name. Respectively, people who want to benefit from tax and customs facilities are required to repeatedly pass the medical commission.
The Council noted that the request for the document confirming the disability is not absolutely necessary, because not all persons with disabilities are eligible for these facilities, only those with locomotor disabilities. This fact can be confirmed by the ruling regarding the need for transport service. The Council pointed out the futility of presenting the certificate to the customs body requesting the beneficiary to waive compensation for transport services in exchange for tax and customs facilities. The Council highlighted that the verification of compliance with this condition rests within the competence of the regional social assistance body from the place of residence, not within the competence of the customs body.
The Council noted that maintaining the obligation to submit the respective set of documents to the customs body involves additional time and effort on the part of the persons with locomotor disabilities, due to the complexity of these unnecessary administrative circuits.
In addition to the recommendation addressed to the government, the Council recommended to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection to initiate the modification of the normative framework in order to remove the identified impediments.
The law allows people with locomotor disabilities to import cars with engines up to 2500 cm3 without paying customs duties. According to the data presented by the Customs Service, between May 1, 2018, and June 27, 2019, 17 transport units destined for the transportation of people with locomotor disabilities benefited from the tax facilities.
