Customs Service tests updated information system ASYCUDA World

A new agreement was signed this year with the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and the company Hewlett Packard on the further modernization of the customs information system ASYICUDA World, Info-Prim Neo reports. Moldova was the first country to implement this system, which contributes to the minimization of the direct contact between the economic entities participating in export-import operations and the customs employees, reducing the number of decisions made subjectively. The Customs Service’ director general Viorel Melnic said that UNCTAD specialists have recently installed an updated version of the information system ASYCUDA World, which is now on trial. It will enable to process the customs declarations quicker, put into practice simplified clearance procedures, use the instruments needed to control and check how the goods are declared and combat customs offences. Viorel Melnic also said that the modernization of the customs infrastructure is a continuous process. Owing to the investments made by the Customs Service, most of the customs posts and offices have the necessary infrastructure and logistics. Last year, there were purchased two mobile scanners that have been installed at the customs posts Tudora –Starokazacie and Leuseni – Albita. At the start of this year, a mobile scanner was transferred to the customs posts Criva – Mamaliga with the assistance of the TACIS program. The European commission has recently decided to provide the Customs Service with two more mobile scanners that will allow improving the capacity to detect goods posing an increased risk. According to Melnic, one-stop offices work at every customs posts, while the customs declarations are distributed automatically by the employees in charge of their control and validation. These and other measures produced good results, including economic. The customs collections in 2009 were by 8% larger than the imports as the value of the goods in the customs was larger than the invoiced value. The revenues transferred to the budget by the Customs Service in the eight months to August fell by 30% compared with the corresponding period last year. Moldova’s Customs Service has 1,721 employees. On September 4, it celebrated the 18-th anniversary of the foundation.