WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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Fiscal and customs facilities represent, by their very nature, significant costs for the budget, and the state authorities were not concerned enough to estimate and report them in a fair and transparent manner, as well as to fully ensure the integration of the principles of good governance in the management of the facilities granted to different categories of beneficiaries.
This and other conclusions were reached by the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) in the context of the examination of the compliance audit report on the administration of the system of fiscal and customs facilities in 2020-2021.
According to the data from the Integrated Customs Information System, fiscal and customs facilities for the last 5 years totaled 48.7 billion lei, which represents a growth rate between the limits of 7 billion lei recorded in 2017, up to 13.3 billion lei in 2021.
In 2021, the fiscal and customs facilities, granted by the Customs Service, to economic agents from the import of goods amounted to 13.4 billion lei, exceeding by 2.7 billion lei or 25% the volume of exemptions granted in 2020 and by 6.3 billion lei or 89.8% the volume of exemptions granted in 2017, being the highest level in the last five years.
The audit found that the establishment and granting of the facilities were carried out in the absence of economic development programs and strategies of some branches or sectors of the national economy, including containing impact indicators and allowing the evaluation of the benefits from their granting.
The audit also identified and formulated a series of vulnerabilities based on the audit findings:
- due to the non-revision of some tax and customs facilities, including those with a term of more than 10 years, as well as due to the introduction in recent years of some new import facilities, at the end of 2021 they registered an increase and counted 89 types of fiscal and customs facilities, including 76 types of facilities or 85.4% of the types of exemptions, being with a duration longer than 10 years, and the remaining 13 types of facilities (14.6%) – with a duration from 1 year to 5 years;
- fiscal and customs facilities granted on the basis of multilateral agreements in the international commercial field amounted to 3798.8 million lei, including the customs tax based on the RM-EU Association Agreement - in the amount of 1676.3 million lei, the free trade agreement with the CIS - 1582.6 million lei, the Agreement with the Republic of Turkey - 438.6 million lei, and VAT and excise duties - in the amount of 101.3 million lei according to other agreements.
- VAT and excise duty exemptions, granted in the last three years, for the import of petroleum products (Jet Fuel) intended to supply aircraft for the international transport of goods and passengers have reached significant limits, these amounting to 1.1 billion lei, being established the lack of regulation of the sales prices of goods imported with exemptions;
- during 2020-2021, about 98% of sugar imports with fiscal and customs facilities were carried out by 2 economic agents from the Republic of Moldova and one economic agent from Transnistria, which imported 47.2 thousand tons of white sugar worth 377.8 million lei, and the CS granted sugar import exemptions in the total amount of 357.6 million lei, including preferential customs duty exemptions in the amount of 154.2 million lei;
- in the reference period, the milk tariff quota limits also increased by 1.2 thousand tons per year, reaching the annual quota of 7.3 thousand tons of milk with the application of 0% customs duty, and for pork and poultry the tariff quota increased by 5.1 thousand tons per year, which in total reached the quota of 13.1 thousand tons of meat annually with the application of 0% customs duty, a fact which does not ensure, according to the legal framework, the protection of domestic producers;
- during 2019-2021, 363 commercial invoices regarding the import of 8.6 thousand tons of petroleum bitumen from Belarus, with the invoice value of 2.8 million euros, were irregularly replaced in the framework of an investment assistance project in the customs territory (3, 3 million US dollars) belonging to 2 resident economic agents with other commercial invoices (invoices) issued by a non-resident economic agent with jurisdiction in Cyprus, with the price of the goods in US dollars, not perfected by the customs authorities, the value of the goods being unjustifiably increased in customs by the amount of 1.1 million US dollars (19.2 million lei), and the resident economic agents unfoundedly benefited from facilities in the amount of 3.9 million lei, causing losses to the state budget in the nominal amounts;
- concerning the electronic declaration of some goods with fiscal and customs facilities, namely the rapid diagnostic tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, some documents justifying the transport expenses reflected in the heading "Elements of value" were not attached to the import customs declaration” in the amount of 3.7 million lei and exemptions from import duties – of 748.1 thousand lei, not having established regulations of the trading prices of the goods imported with exemptions;
- the single register of fiscal and customs facilities for the years 2020-2021 does not include the value of VAT exemptions, in the amount of 780.6 million lei, with the right of deduction, related to technical and investment assistance projects;
- the value of mainly foreign goods, placed in duty-free shops in 2020-2021, was 998.1 million lei, registering an increase from 326.0 million lei in 2020 to 672.1 million lei in 2021, or by 206%, and the value of the facilities granted to these goods was 1,985.1 million lei;
- due to the lack of internal control, non-verification in the system and non-documentation of the facilities upon leaving the country, the value of the facilities granted to a resident economic agent in 2020 for some goods placed in the destination of duty-free shops was erroneously increased by 3.6 billion lei (to excise duty – by 3.0 billion lei and VAT – by 0.6 billion lei), by the erroneous entry by the customs body of the amount of cigarettes in the customs import declaration, this being increased 1000 times and, respectively, the amount of calculated import rights;
- in 2021, the exemptions granted for the import of 1235 units of means of transport, with a value of 115.8 million lei, intended for the transport of persons with disabilities of the locomotor system and persons authorized to accompany or care for them, authorized by the bodies social, they reached the figure of 203.6 million lei, noting the importation of luxury cars, as well as the use of means of transport for purposes other than those provided by the legislation for which the facilities were granted;
- the exemptions granted to the goods introduced into the customs territory of the country by economic agents and natural persons from the eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova, provided that the goods remain in the territory not controlled by the constitutional bodies, have totaled in the last three years a total of 13.4 billion lei, including 5.4 billion lei are the exemptions granted in 2021;
- in the years 2020-2021, 3.9 billion m3 of natural gas with a value of 997.8 million US dollars imported from the Russian Federation by S.A. "Moldovagaz" for S.R.L. "Tiraspoltransgaz" were not declared to the customs body, and the exemptions not regularly reported in the Single Register of fiscal and customs facilities totaled 1.3 billion lei, according to audit estimates.
In conclusion, the Court of Accounts concludes that as a result of the fact that the costs of fiscal and customs facilities for the import of goods register significant increases that influence the amount of customs revenues collected at the state budget, that field requires more effective monitoring and collaboration from all authorities involved in the process.
