Trade turnover growth despite the pandemic and 3 attempts of smuggling: Tatarstan customs sums up the results of 2021

Trade turnover increased by almost $4 billion

According to the head of the Tatarstan customs, Major General of the Customs Service Marat Garayev, in 2021 the agency issued 1,421 declarations for goods. 2,7 billion rubles have been transferred to the federal budget. In the previous year, 6,017 customs inspections were carried out, of which 5,424 inspections were carried out when moving goods in international mail. At the same time, their efficiency was almost 70%.

“Last year, despite the negative epidemiological situation in the world, the trade turnover of the republic increased compared to the same period last year," said Marat Garayev.

The trade turnover in 2021 increased by almost $4 billion and amounted to $16 billion. For comparison: from January to December 2020, Tatarstan's trade turnover in the foreign market amounted to $12,4 billion.

Without marking or forgery

Last year, customs officers identified and seized 16,7 tonnes of unmarked food products worth 1,7 million rubles. Most often it was nuts, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, cheeses, cereals. The reasons for the withdrawal of goods are the lack of information about the date of manufacture, storage conditions, expiration date, address of the manufacturer of the goods, the EAC circulation mark.

Among the industrial goods, fur coats, shoes, garments, bed and kitchen linen, tobacco products were most often without markings. Customs officers have identified and withdrawn from circulation 44,071 units of such things in the amount of 3,09 million rubles.

“The lion's share of identified unmarked goods — 43,070 units — tobacco products. Also in 2021, counterfeit goods were withdrawn from trade: shoes, tracksuits, bags. The copyright holders have been prevented damage in the amount of 1 million 795 thousand rubles," Garayev said.

“Three attempts of smuggling were prevented”

Speaking about the work of customs officers at airports, Garayev stressed that, despite the pandemic, passenger traffic increased sharply last year. In Begishevo, it increased by more than 3 times, 6 violations were detected there, all of them were related to the import of alcoholic beverages.

The number of passengers at the Kazan International Airport has increased by more than 2 times. In it, customs officers identified 419 facts of the movement of goods in violation of the established procedure and having signs of prohibited or restricted movement across the customs border. Most often it was alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco products, banknotes, securities, weapons.

“In 2021, three smuggling attempts were prevented at the Kazan International Airport. Two criminal cases have been initiated for smuggling large amounts of cash by Russian citizens to Turkey. One criminal case was initiated for the illegal movement of gold jewelry worth more than a million rubles from Turkey," said Marat Garayev.

The department noted that quite often the detection of illegally moved goods occurs with the participation of service dogs.

“In 2021, the movement of narcotic substances in international postal item — cocaine — more than 100 grams, as well as two facts of smuggling money to Turkey on a particularly large scale were revealed with the participation of our service dogs of the cynological department of customs," said Marat Garayev.

In total, 33 cases of non-declaration of funds, as well as 12 facts of non-declaration of tobacco products were revealed with the participation of service dogs at Kazan airport. Fifty-four cases of administrative offenses have been initiated.

17 criminal cases

In 2021, 1,950 cases of administrative offense were initiated with the assistance of customs officers. Most often they concerned the submission to the customs authority of a statistical form of accounting for the movement of goods, as well as their declaration. Last year it was not without “felonies”. Seventeen cases were initiated under various articles of the Criminal Code — on smuggling of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, illegal formation of a legal entity, evasion of customs payments and others. As an illustrative example, the speaker of the briefing, Marat Garayev, told about the case initiated under Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — about the commission of currency transactions for the transfer of funds to non-resident accounts using forged documents.

“A case was initiated against a resident of Kazan and three residents of Izhevsk. These citizens illegally organised more than 15 rogue firms in Russia and Kazakhstan and used them to withdraw currency to the accounts of foreign counterparties using invalid documents. The amount of illegally transferred funds amounted to 244 million rubles, which is a particularly large amount," he said.

Also, the head of the republican customs reminded citizens about what amounts of cash can be transported freely, and for which permits are already required.

“The export of currency of less than $10 thousand is not subject to declaration in written form. If you export more, you are obliged to fill out a passenger-customs declaration, having necessarily passed through the red corridor, and indicate in the declaration the sources of currency receipt. If you export more than $100 thousand, you must not just fill out this declaration and pass through the red corridor, but also attach documents confirming the fact of the acquisition of funds. It is the documents that are either originals or notarised," said Marat Garayev.