Transnistrian legislature will examine project to modify border crossing procedure

The parliament of the breakaway republic of Transnistria will consider a project to modify the procedure for crossing the Transnistrian border. MP Andrei Sipchenko, the author of the legislative initiative, considers that the border control bodies should not have double functions and the documents should be checked by a single authority, Info-Prim Neo’s correspondent reports. The documents of the persons that enter or go out of the region are now checked by three institutions: the state security ministry, the customs committee and the migration administration. The people that are not registered in Transnistria are obliged to fill in the immigration book and this creates long queues at the border crossing points. Sipchenko considers that a “green corridor” should be created for the persons that do not transport valuable goods. From January 1, 2009, amendments will be introduced to the list of persons obliged to pay the migration tax for temporary visit to Transnistria. The persons that benefit from diplomatic and consular privileges, were born on the territory of the region, are older than 70, are citizens of Transnistria and live abroad, live within 5 kilometers of the Transnistrian border will be exempted from taxes. Until 2008, the foreigners and citizens of Moldova paid a migration tax to cross the Transnistrian border. On January 1, the Transnistrian legislature cancelled the tax and introduced a registration tax for the foreigners that stay more than 10 hours in Transnistria.