In Uzbekistan, five companies have become the first authorized economic operators, the press service of the State Customs Committee reports.

They are:

•  Navruz International Corp.
•  UNITED DISTRIBUTION.
•  ROODELL.
•  ZELAL TEKSTIL.
•  UzCarlsberg.

Reportedly, they all fall into category “A”.

At the end of November 2018, the president signed a decree on simplification and improvement of customs control.

According to the document, the introduction from February 1, 2019 of the institute of authorized economic operators was approved. These are bona fide export-import companies that are entitled to use simplified customs procedures.

On April 29, 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers issued a resolution approving the regulations on authorized economic operators.

After that, as an experiment, several companies were selected that meet the criteria, which became the first operators – they will be listed in a special register, which will be published on the customs committee website.

Criteria for selecting a company in the register:

•  the head and chief accountant of the company should not be held liable under articles 174, 175, 176, 177, 227–227 (27) of the Administrative Code for one year prior to the day of appeal;

•  the company should be free from debts on taxes and other obligatory payments, including fines and interest on them;

•  the company has been exporting and importing at least three years prior to the application;

•  the company should have facilities, rooms or sites that can be used as a warehouse;

•  the invoice value of imported or exported goods should be at least $2 million per year and in the last 12 months at least 100 import or export cargo customs declarations must have been processed. It is also allowed if during the last 12 months, the amount of customs payments paid is not less than 20,000 MMW and at least 50 declarations should have been processed.

Operators are divided into two categories – “A” and “B”, on the basis of which they receive certain simplifications.

Companies in the “A” category, for example, receive the following privileges:

•  exemption from the use of forms of customs control when making decisions on the release of goods;

•  customs operations related to the declaration and release of goods in the first place;

•  exemption from customs payments upon delivery of goods from the customs authority of departure to the place of destination;

•  and much more.

Companies in the “B” category, in addition to everything that an operator of the “A” category receives, also receive the following rights for:

•  exemption from the requirement to pay for the security of payment of customs duties in the conditional determination of the customs value in the release of goods;

•  installment and deferral of customs payments up to 60 days without the provision of security;

•  priority participation in pilot projects and experiments to reduce the time of customs operations;

•  having a customs coordinator, who helps in resolving issues;

•  and others.