The company imported salt from Romania and it was not the first time that it had encountered the customs value adjustment. Last year, the court overturned the customs office’s decision to adjust the customs value of eight batches of salt imported by the company.
This time, the company underwent an examination regarding imported salt price compliance with the current market situation in advance and attached a document with its results to the customs declaration.
While reviewing the documents submitted for customs clearance, the customs officer requested documents from the company relating to insurance costs and other payment/accounting papers without specifying exactly which documents should be provided and what doubts the customs had. The company refused to provide additional documents, as it had provided the customs with a sufficient package of documents to determine the customs value of goods. However, the customs decided to adjust the value of goods, justifying that decision by the fact that the company did not apply for transportation and because of discrepancies between the statistical value of goods (in the national currency of Romania) specified in the export customs declaration, and the invoice value shown in the invoice.
After receiving the complaint, the Business Ombudsman Council upheld the company and sent an appeal to the State Customs Service of Ukraine (SCS of Ukraine). Separately, BOC participated in the company’s complaint review with the participation of the complainant and the customs authority. The Council noted that the company had paid for the goods in euro under the contract, so the difference in the national currency could have arisen due to fluctuations in the Romanian leu against euro. Therefore, such differences couldn’t testify to imported salt declared price incorrectness.
Eventually, joint consideration of the company’s complaint, thanks to BOC mediation, made it possible to positively resolve the case. The discrepancies in the documents were eliminated, and the customs dropped the decision to adjust the customs value of goods.
