How to avoid administrative liability?

When conducting an inspection of compliance with customs legislation, if the actions of the inspected entity constitute the aforementioned offense, customs officials are obliged to initiate administrative proceedings. However, current legislation establishes circumstances that preclude the actions from being considered an administrative offense.

Thus, in accordance with the provisions of Article 5.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus, non-payment or incomplete payment of customs duties within the established timeframe by a legal entity or individual entrepreneur, including actions by an official of a legal entity, in an amount not exceeding 1% of the paid customs duties for each calendar year in which such action was committed, will not be considered an administrative offense, provided that the damage caused to the state is compensated no later than 3 working days from the date of signing the relevant inspection report.

Consequently, to exclude administrative liability under Part 9 of Article 13.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus, entities must not allow customs duty arrears to exceed 1% of the amount paid during the year and must settle them within a three-day period.

At the same time, these circumstances are not always properly analyzed by customs officials during inspections.

For example, the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office filed protests against the decisions of the Vitebsk Customs, which involved two customs clearance specialists of JSC "Polotsk-Steklovolokno" being held administratively liable under Part 9 of Article 13.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus for incomplete payment of customs duties due to the application of an incorrect import customs duty rate resulting from incorrect classification of goods in accordance with the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity of the Eurasian Economic Union.

It was established that in both cases, the amounts of customs duties unpaid by officials of JSC "Polotsk-Steklovolokno" were less than 1% of the amounts paid, and the additionally accrued amounts were paid off even before the inspection report was drawn up.

The protests were satisfied by the court of the Oktyabrsky district of Vitebsk, and the cases against the officials of JSC "Polotsk-Steklovolokno" were terminated.

Prosecutor of the Department for Supervision of Legislation Enforcement and Legality of Legal Acts Andrey Nizyulko