If you are importing goods from abroad, you definitely need to be aware of all the obligations that are related to the settlement of the imported goods.
By joining the European Union, we have become part of a common market without internal and customs borders between Member States. In practice, this means that if you want to import goods into Slovakia from a member country, you can do so without needing a permit or having to pay customs duties. In the case of importing goods from third countries, i.e. countries that are not part of the European Union’s customs area, customs rules and tax obligations apply to these goods. The whole process of clearing the Inland Revenue for such a shipment is complicated and will take up many hours of your time. This is where an automated system providing electronic communication with the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic comes in handy to handle the entire customs-declaration process.
You will welcome the service, which aims to process consignments from non-EU countries from their entry into the country in an automated manner, through the processing of formalities within the customs-declaration warehouse to the release of the consignment for free circulation, as well as sending the data to an external system for the purpose of its delivery to the addressee and the collection of the customs debt levied. A comprehensive solution with a number of integrations that support the main objective – electronic customs clearance of the consignment.
We will tell you more about how the complex solution was gradually implemented and used by Slovenská pošta, a.s. in the following article.
Creation and implementation of the system into the client’s environment
In the framework of the eCIP project, a concept for an electronic customs declaration solution for shipments from non-EU countries was presented to the management of Slovak Post at the turn of 2018/2019. The concept included a proposal to modify the status of Slovak Post, a.s., as a customs declarant. The management of the company decided on the necessity to create a software solution to ensure the collection and consolidation of data on the consignments, as well as to ensure guaranteed electronic communication with the IS FS SR (IS CEP). On the basis of the analyses of various solution options, the management of Slovenská pošta, a.s. decided to create and implement a separate ECK (Electronic Customs Clearance) module within IS JSSA, which Slovenská pošta, a.s. was already using for various agenda processing within the company. The contractor, GAMO a.s., started working on the implementation and configuration of JSSA-ECK in 2019. Slovenská pošta, a.s., started using the system in routine operation from 1 January 2020 for electronic customs declaration of postal consignments containing commercial goods with a value of more than EUR 22 and up to EUR 1 000. The ECK system was subsequently extended to include the possibility of electronic communication between customers and the customs declarant via the Slovak Post portal.
As of 1 July 2021, the European Commission has decided to abolish the €22 duty-free limit and simplify the customs declaration process for eCommerce shipments up to a value of €150. This change has led to a several-fold increase in the number of customs-declared consignments. ECK also had to adapt to the new situation by deploying functionality allowing automated customs declaration without direct intervention of the customs declarant. The automation of the process was achieved by extracting information for the customs declaration from available customs data sources and implementing machine learning for the unambiguous identification of the goods items according to the customs tariff code. Thanks to this implementation, Slovenská pošta, a.s. is able to declare high numbers of shipments per month.
Further expansion of the ECK system was implemented on the basis of new legislative requirements for customs clearance. The “Import Control System” (ICS2) security control functionality was gradually implemented. At the same time, the ECK system is also being extended with functionalities aimed at increasing customer convenience when delivering shipments from third countries. One of such modifications is the possibility to pay all fees and VAT already when purchasing goods in the e-shop, which will simplify the delivery process. In order to provide managers with clear information on the customs-declaration process, ECK will be extended with a Business Intelligence tool clearly displaying the status of shipment processing, which will augment the already implemented operational reporting.
System development and vision of commercial application
GAMO plans to use the experience gained from the implementation of the ECK system in the future when completing the solution for customs clearance with the aim to cover all customs-declaration processes for import, export and transit, regardless of the value and content of the shipments. The idea is to create a user-friendly web environment with a maximum degree of process automation – thanks to the implementation of machine learning, integration into international networks and the implementation of legislative changes – well in advance. The system will allow individual as well as bulk declaration of goods and shipments. It will provide predefined scenarios enabling efficient declaration of selected goods, by displaying only relevant information for a given type. The solution will also include a process guide to facilitate the declaration for novice users and a help containing all relevant legislative information. It will be possible to define your own workflow in the system for frequently repeated processes, which will make the work even more efficient.
