A significant part of goods comes from Asia: how the customs service of Belarus has worked for 35 years

Today, on September 15, a press conference “Economic shield of the country: reliable protection and new borders of the customs service” was held in the House of Press. Details are reported by the correspondent sb.by.

The event is timed to the 35th anniversary of the customs service of the Republic of Belarus. The organization is approaching this event in the status of a high-tech digital agency.

- Currently, there are 26 road checkpoints in our country, 13 - railway. All are equipped with infrastructure, there are necessary software technical means that allow high-quality work, said Viktor Zubik, head of the main department of the customs control organization of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus. The total throughput capacity of road points is 32 thousand cars per day, for known reasons, some of them are closed, but their work may resume.

The customs service also reconstructed 12 checkpoints. Among them, for example, “Berestovica”. The work here will be completed on the eve of the opening of the Polish side of its checkpoint "Bobrovniki".

This year, the reconstruction of the Stone Log will begin, which is designed until 2029.

According to Viktor Zubik, work is underway to ensure comfortable movement of citizens of our country. In front of all checkpoints, waiting areas have been created, which have comfortable conditions with the necessary infrastructure, and an electronic queue.

- In 2026, remote registration for passenger vehicles was introduced, the representative of the customs service said. A citizen, being, figuratively speaking, on the sofa, can register in an electronic queue thanks to a pass with which he plans to cross the border, and already, observing the progress of the queue, calculate the time of direct arrival at this place.

From 1 January of the current year for passenger cars, and from 1 April – for trucks, the booking of the date of crossing the border was introduced.

- Those who use this service can arrive on the date they chose and cross the border, explained Viktor Zubik. Of course, the service is not free, but in demand. It is used by owners of cars and trucks.

In terms of controls, the most effective and reliable is X-ray equipment. According to the customs service, about 1,200 trucks are scanned per day throughout the country.

The Customs Service demonstrates its effectiveness not only by introducing services for comfortable border crossing, but also by ensuring national security and combating drug trafficking. Over the past five years, the customs authorities in the framework of combating drug trafficking prevented the import and circulation of about 9 tons of narcotic, psychotropic substances and their precursors in the country.

One of the topical directions of the customs service of the Republic of Belarus is work on the suppression of violations of airspace using drones.

- This is a new direction in the work of not only customs, but also law enforcement agencies of our country. We needed to respond to the movement of such objects that posed a threat to the security of our country, explained Sergey Parfenov, head of the main department of the organization to combat smuggling of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus. In this regard, liability was imposed for violation of Decree No. 297 of September 25, 2023 “On state accounting and operation of civil unmanned aerial vehicles”.

Sergey Parfenov also focused on the restructuring of commodity flows, which are influenced by external factors.

- Taking into account the sanctions pressure from the European Union on Belarus and Russia, the logistics flows of goods into the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union are changing. A significant part of the goods now comes not from the European Union, but from Asia.

Valuev@sb.by