On 15 January at “Atameken”, a workshop was held within the framework of the implementation of “Astana-1”automation system and implementation of legislation of a new Customs Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Dina Mamasheva, Managing director- Director of the customs administration department at “Atameken” served as a moderator.

Gosman Amrin, the Vice- Chairman of the Committee of internal revenue MF RK, industry associations and business communities representatives took part in this event, including regional ones through the CCS.

Let us remind that since January 1, 2018 Customs export and transit procedures are available in electronic declaration. Nevertheless, as it was noted at the workshop, there are 3 main problems in the work of “Astana -1” AS. First of all, non-compliance with the rules of customs declaration completion, which operate within the Eurasian Economic Union. Secondly, there are some technical problems (communication channels etc.). And thirdly, this is domestic interaction and communications.

“There are a lot of questions concerning export. For example, we need to understand what time it takes to fill the customs declaration, because the internet tells that it takes only one minute which is not exactly correspond to reality- said Dina Mamasheva, opening the workshop. Today it is impossible to fill the declaration without the help of customs inspectors”.

Gosman Amrin said that all the inaccuracies and deficiencies are being discussed in Telegram chats with the participants of the foreign trade activities.

“I would like to say that all these issues are being discussed in Telegram chat. It is a good media, where we see the dynamics and improvements. There is a special working group in the centre which analyses all the requests and comments. Personally, I systematized all the problems in groups. The first one is export problems in the work of “Astana-1”. There are also some technical problems, concerning internet and workers skills. Particularly, it concerns thrashing and cache flush. The second problem is that people don’t want to read the instructions. And the last one is contradictions in the Code and the difficulty in compliance of the customs declaration”- said Amrin. (Customs union committee’s decision №257, May 20, 2010)

The speaker also said that there are some problems with the broker programs utilization.

“It is impossible to adapt one system to other working systems. But today we have to do this, although our common national standard should set the tone for this but not the other way around. Concerning customs payments: people dudgeon is understandable. They paid accounts but banks didn’t accept them. This issue is being discussed at the Vice prime minister’s level. We want National bank to pay accounts during 30 minutes maximum. And for your information, only 24 banks work with the Customs. The list of banks is on the site of the committee”-clarified Vice-chairman.

He also underlined that they support the format to have a meeting every 3 months concerning “Astana-1” automation system.

“Telegram is a good app but we want to systematize our work, because the information is quickly getting irrelevant and no one wants to search for it. That’s why there is the repetition of issues”- underlined Gosman Amrin.

Dina Mamasheva, in turn, recalled that it was repeatedly offered to summarize and to post all frequently asked questions on the official site of “Atameken”.

“System developers do not meet a schedule, so it was offered to conclude all the work till March1, 2018 and to automatize the process”-said Amrin.​

Organization’s management of customs control Deputy director of the customs control department, the head of “Astana-1” project, Umitgul Gubasheva demonstrated on practice how to send the mistakes to the government, that were made during online declaration. She also said about eliminated errors in the system, revealed by the business.

The second issue on the agenda was statutory and regulatory enactments, introduced by the customs code of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

The speaker also informed meeting participants that 96 enactments will be implemented.

21 enactments were sent to the national chamber of entrepreneurs for the expertise and to make suggestions to the industry associations and regional chambers. All enactments are on the site of the national chamber of entrepreneurs.

The speaker made a point on the outcome of the consideration of two orders:

-The rules of customs clearance by the customs officers;

-The rules of interaction between the government revenue bodies and Approved Economic Operator.

Dina Mamasheva also noted that according to the order at Astana-1 there is no clear difference between customs declaration’s application and registration. But she also said that on practice there is one.

“In the code there is a confirmed online declaration format and Astana-1 AS should accept it. That’s called an application and after that there is the registration and the verification of information. But according to the rules of the customs clearance, application and registration became one process. The order does not clearly prescribe that there is no need for the entrepreneur to associate documents with stores, exception to this is the certificate of origin. And there is no clear information about interaction with a long-distance output. This is indicated in the expert’s report. It is also worth taking into account that all the suggestions must be corrected with the import implementation”- noted Dina Mamasheva.

Besides that, the speaker said that the rules of interaction between the Customs bodies and Approved Economic Operator don’t describe the process of interaction, special simplifications to the approved economic operator and the information exchange regulation.

As the result of the legislation discussion it was decided that the orders must be modified.

Gosman Amrin supported the initiative of the national chamber to consider all business projects in every 3 months.

 As the result of the meeting it was decided to consider the issues on customs declaration application, acceptance of online declarations, interaction with banks and tax bodies at the next workshop.