He said that in 2014, the SCC held a lot of work towards the improvement of the normative legal framework in the area of customs.

“In particular, ‘The rules for placing processing products under special customs procedure’, ‘The rules governing the activities of customs representative offices’ and ‘The rules of placing transit goods under the special customs procedure’ were prepared and approved by the relevant decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers, while a number of regulations were included to the state registry,” said Aliyev.

He noted that the SCC and its local structures, over the past period, took measures to improve the customs controls in the export and import operations, strengthening the fight against smuggling and customs rules violations.

“In this sense, the mobile customs offices, which simplify the control, are of great importance,” he said. “Last year, the activity of such offices revealed over 352 cases of deviation of vehicles from the route or attempts for such deviation. Operative measures were taken with respect to such trucks.”

The SCC chairman also said that in order to speed up the operations on customs control and increase their efficiency, work is underway to provide the customs authorities with modern technical control means.

He also noted that the plan of measures for the current year includes the works provided for in the action plan for the development of SCC in 2012-2016.

“It is also envisaged to carry out relevant work for executing the tasks set in the development concept ‘Azerbaijan 2020: A Look into the Future’, to further improve the ‘single window’ principle at the customs checkpoints in the country,” said Aliyev.

The “single window” principle has been used at customs in Azerbaijan since January 1, 2009.

Aydin Aliyev noted that in 2015, it is envisaged to fully automate the customs procedures, the measures for ensuring the timely consideration of citizens’ appeals, the customs control in line with modern requirements, simplification of customs procedures, strengthening financial discipline and combating customs offences, the wide use of modern information systems, expansion of the number of e-services, using the e-signature and VAIS system, and ensuring the SCC’s integration in the state program "Electronic Azerbaijan".

More about: