PM Groysman supports greater material liability for smuggling

"Today I charge the Ministry of Finance to elaborate initiatives to increase the financial responsibility for smuggling", the prime minister said Tuesday during a meeting with businessmen while considering systemic violations of the rights of economic entities.

Volodymyr Groysman stressed that the underestimating of the customs value is among the main corruption schemes incurring losses for the Ukrainian economy and budget, violating the principles of competitiveness for domestic products.

Read alsoWhen will Groysman’s new task force tackle smugglingIn this context, the prime minister emphasized the importance of settling issues of customs value and the objective evaluation of products. "We have to fix the value while clearance equal to that it was purchased at", he said.

Opening the meeting, Volodymyr Groysman noted that there are cases when undervalue of goods at the Ukrainian customs and smuggling continues with the direct protection of various law enforcement agencies.

At this, he informed about the measures introduced by the Government within the scope of the Ukrainian customs reform.

During talks with the heads of government of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in Krynica Zdroj, it was agreed to merge databases of transporting of goods across the customs border, said the prime minister.

Also on September 19, the U.S. mission is due to provide a report on the assessment of the needs to upgrade the customs service.

Earlier, the prime minister also told about the new tools operating in the Ukrainian customs, in particular the introduction of the Single Window procedure on August 11 and photo and video-taping of custom clearance process.

In August, revenues from the customs as compared to the Revenue Plan grew by over UAH 2 billion, he said.

"But I want to admit we shouldn’t stop here. Over decades the system has been infected, entwined with corruption. And it is early to say that we’ve established order at the customs," Groysman said.