WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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The planning, execution and reporting of the revenue collected from the collection of import-export duties, administered by the Customs Service, needs to be improved.
In this context, the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) examined on September 2 the Compliance Audit Report on the administration of state budget revenues by the Customs Service (CS) in 2020-2021.
The objectives of the audit were focused on the planning, execution and reporting of revenues administered by the CS, on the fullness of the collection of arrears to the state budget, on the organization of customs control and the determination of the customs value of goods and the placement of goods in some suspensive customs regimes authorized by the customs body.
Having duties regarding the administration of revenues, the CS collected 28.6 billion lei to the state budget in 2021, which represents 62.2% of the total revenues of the state budget and 14% of the Gross Domestic Product.
In 2021, customs revenues increased by 6 billion lei, or by 26.8%, compared to the previous year. In 2020, the CS collected revenues to the state budget in the amount of 22.5 billion lei, or 368.1 million lei (1.7%) more than the specified control figure.
Although the CS has undertaken some actions regarding the consolidation and development of processes related to customs administration, the audit established the presence of some irregularities and vulnerabilities.
The lack of methodological rules for recording and reporting the revenues actually calculated from import-export rights, including the Requirements for the preparation of the Narrative Report on the execution of the part of revenues administered by the Customs Service, causes some deficiencies in the reporting of actually calculated revenues, since the reporting of the state budget is based on the cash method. The exchange of information by the CS and the Ministry of Finance is carried out on the basis of a Regulation approved in 2005, which is outdated methodologically and in time, and which respectively underwent changes in the aspect of the structure of some documents, but the originally approved order was not modified by regulation.
Was stated the maintenance of the significant share of problematic historical debts to be collected. Taxpayers' claims against the state budget as of 31.12.2021 amounted to 344 million lei. At the same time, the maintenance of some debts with the expired prescription period, of 105.7 million lei, formed during1995-2014, which denotes reservations about the payment discipline in terms of the accumulation of arrears.
The audit identified the ineffectiveness of the measures taken regarding outstanding customs obligations. The non-collection in full amounts and on time of the customs obligations to the state budget led to the extinguishment in 2020-2021 of the customs obligation through cancellation and the expiration of the prescription period in the total amount of 172.5 million lei.
The compliance of the arrears record-keeping and reporting process is affected by the non-calculation of the late increase in basic payments for non-honoring of customs bonds by economic agents because the "Economist" module does not calculate penalties for 6 years, a fact that led to the decrease of receivables registered on 31.12.2021 by about 47.7 million lei.
Although the CS has the "Customs Value" and "SICOM" modules from SIIV "Asycuda World" for seven years, their development and modernization was not ensured to improve customs activity by minimizing some risks of declaring import goods, as well as keeping automated records of certificates of preferential origin of export goods.
The value of external economic transactions in 2021 recorded the amount of over 10.3 billion US dollars, increasing by 23.6% compared to 2020. The gap established in the evolution of exports and imports determined the formation in 2021 of the trade balance deficit in the amount of over 4 billion US dollars, increasing by 37% compared to 2020.
In the structure of foreign trade, imports prevail over exports by 2.3 times, in 2021 totaling over 7 billion US dollars (69.5%), increasing by 132.5% compared to 2020. Within the total imports by country, the share of 43.8% is held by the countries of the European Union.
The analysis of the data from the official statistics of the Republic of Moldova regarding import and export in the years 2019-2021, in relation to the official statistical data of some states, revealed deviations of the statistical data namely the decrease of 3.9 billion US dollars in the statistical value of imported and declared goods and 618.7 million US dollars in the statistical value of exported goods to the nominated countries in relation to the real import registered by these countries, a fact that generates risks regarding the loss of some revenues from the non-payment of import rights liable to be collected from the state budget.
The regulatory framework in the field of trade facilitation and customs revenue administration has not been fully adjusted to the provisions of the commitments assumed in the RM-EU Association Agreement and of the amendment protocol to the Marrakesh Agreement on the establishment of the World Trade Organization, the adoption of single documentation for import, export and transit operations has been delayed, although the parties have agreed that their trade and customs legislation will be applied uniformly and effectively.
It was found that, in some cases, the methods for determining the customs value by correlation with the transaction value of identical goods were not applied consecutively.
These situations significantly reduce the degree of compliance of the customs administration, having an impact on the level of revenue collection in the state budget and on the proper exercise of the role of revenue administrator. The findings of the Court of Accounts determine the need to adopt stringent measures regarding the remedy of deficiencies and problematic situations in the audited field.
