14:35 27.09.2018

Ukrposhta predicts stoppage of imports due to imperfectness of "law about three parcels"

3 min read
Ukrposhta predicts stoppage of imports due to imperfectness of "law about three parcels"

PJSC Ukrposhta predicts that imports of goods to Ukraine could stop due to the imperfectness of the bill restricting duty free delivery of goods to individuals by international postal and express delivery services with three deliveries a month ("the law about three parcels"), Ukrposhta CEO Igor Smelyansky has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"If it (the requirement about the three parcels] will not be abolished, all imports will stop. This will all be over. It will not be the responsibility of Ukrposhta. This will be the fault of a customs officer who does not want to take responsibility for calculating, which out of five parcels is the fourth. I am warning everyone in advance: if the entire Boryspil airport is packed with international parcels in several layers, this is not a question for Ukrposhta, it is a question for those who passed this law," he said.

According to the head of Ukrposhta, there are other ways to combat illegal imports, including work with the IMEI code base, a change in the taxation scheme for individual entrepreneurs.

"The most interesting thing is that this law was adopted in violation of all requirements, because there was no assessment of how much the implementation of this initiative would cost the state. How long will this implementation take, especially taking into account the large-scale tender for the artificial intelligence system and its designing," Smelyansky said.

According to him, despite the entry of this law into force on January 1, 2019, the expenses of customs offices in the national budget for 2019 with the goal of implementing this initiative are not increased.

He also said that there are a number of questions to implement this law: how to determine the fourth parcel, how to ensure the lawful unpacking, assessment, how long it will take the implementation of the project on a countrywide scale and how many people will be involved in it.

"In other countries there is a restriction on the cost of imported parcels, their number is not limited. In the EU, there is indeed a limit on EUR 22 for imported goods, but the EU market is many times larger than in Ukraine. How can one try to establish the same rules for the market in 500 million people in the EU and 40 million in Ukraine?" Smelyansky said.

At the same time, he also expressed hope that the country's government will have enough common sense to postpone the implementation of the deadlines or somehow rewrite this initiative.

At the same time, acting Head of the State Fiscal Service Oleksandr Vlasov in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine said that the implementation of the project to control postal items is difficult.

"We are working on the control system, but there are really difficulties. Based on the volume of data that is currently provided, in particular, by postal operators, it is impossible to identify the natural person-recipient and, accordingly, determine which number of the parcel he or she receives," he said.

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