Since June 17, 2012, in accordance with Decision No. 899 of the Customs Union Commission dated December 9, 2011, mandatory preliminary information submission for goods imported into the Customs Union’s customs territory by road transport was introduced in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

For goods transported by rail, mandatory preliminary information submission within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has been in effect since October 1, 2014, based on Decision No. 196 of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board dated September 17, 2013. For goods transported by air, mandatory preliminary information submission was introduced on April 1, 2017, following Decision No. 158 of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board dated December 1, 2015, “On the Introduction of Mandatory Preliminary Information Submission for Goods Imported into the Customs Territory of the Eurasian Economic Union by Air Transport.”

Similar to the European Union, the introduction of mandatory preliminary information submission aims to:

Enhance the throughput capacity of border checkpoints at the external border of the EAEU;

Reduce the time required for customs procedures at points of arrival;

Optimize customs control by pre-selecting control objects before goods and transport arrive at border checkpoints.

If preliminary information is submitted in the required volume for placing goods under the customs transit procedure at the point of arrival, this information can serve as an electronic copy of the transit declaration, provided there are no discrepancies between the preliminary information and the documents used as the transit declaration.

This regulation eliminates the need for foreign economic activity (FEA) participants to contact a customs representative (broker) at the checkpoint to generate an electronic copy of the transit declaration, thus reducing both time and financial costs.

Currently, the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan has organized the acceptance of preliminary information via the Web portal of the state revenue authorities.

If there are no errors in the preliminary information, the interested party receives an electronic notification containing a unique transportation identification number (UTIN).

In cases where multiple shipments are transported on the same vehicle, preliminary information must be provided separately for each shipment. Each shipment is assigned an individual UTIN, according to the established rules for forming a transit declaration.

Preliminary information is stored in the customs authorities’ database for 30 days from the date of UTIN assignment. To complete customs procedures, the UTIN is provided by the interested party to the state revenue authority at the customs border of the EAEU, either as a printed copy from the Web portal or by indicating the UTIN in the transport document.

The Kazakhstan Customs Authorities’ Web Portal for submitting preliminary information (pi.customs.kz) is open to all FEA participants without restrictions. Access to the portal is granted through simple user registration.

Leading Specialist of the “Bakhty” Customs Post, State Revenue Department of Abay Region, Chuvaeva O.