Ukraine's parliament introduces "single window" at customs

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed the law on transferring customs clearance procedures online through the "single window" mechanism, as well as the optimization and simplification of customs routine.

The relevant decision was backed by 254 MPs out of the 226 minimum required.

"With this law, we are not introducing any additional types of control... While earlier, some documents had to be submitted in paper form, now all this package of documents will be in a single customs window. This is a very significant deregulation and great simplification," said Oleh Kryshyn, Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy.

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In particular, the law regulates the functioning of a single website with electronic documents for regulatory bodies, cancels the need for submission of paper scanned copies of documents, as well as introduces time limits for the control by customs authorities.

During the consideration of the bill in the parliament, Kryshyn particularly insisted on the adoption of a number of amendments to it.

"If the changes are not approved... We will completely unbalance this bill. These are two years of work, please, MPs," he emphasized.

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The essence of one of the amendments was voiced by Tetiana Ostrikova, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy.

"I will now lobby for the amendment drafted by Kryshyn, Yuzhanina, Ostrikova, which amends Article 319 of the Customs Code... I'm calling on you to support Article 319, which will completely change the order of interaction [with customs authorities] of businesses involved in foreign trade. We will leave only two controlling bodies – the income and taxes agency and the border guards," she said.

As a result, the parliament has supported all amendments voiced by Kryshyn.