New NCTS system – paperless customs clearance from August 1 in Bosnia and Herzegovina

06.07.2022.

The beginning of the application of the Law on the Customs Policy of BiH, and thus of the NCTS (new transit computer system), definitely begins on August 1 of this year.

According to Ratko Kovačević, the Head of the Department for Communications and International Cooperation of the Indirect Taxation Administration (ITA) of BiH, this means that then the Law on Customs Policy of BiH, which was adopted in 2015, will finally begin to be implemented, but its implementation required that in BiH there certified body for issuing a qualified digital signature, which will certify electronic documents.

“As the ITA could no longer wait for someone in BiH to become a certified body for issuing digital qualified signatures, the Administration itself entered into the process of obtaining this status, and on the way to becoming a certified body, the ITA received great help from the EU Delegation in BiH, which financed everything through IPA funds,” Kovačević told Fena.

He reminded that in May 2021, the ITA became a certified body for issuing digital qualified signatures, thus fulfilling the requirement that future transit customs declarations be digitally certified and signed and have the same legal force as the current classic seal and signature. That is why it was planned that the beginning of the application of the Law on Customs Policy of BiH, and thus the NCTS, would be on July 1, 2021, with the condition that the Parliament of BiH adopts the new Law on Customs Offenses of BiH.

“As the Parliament of BiH did not adopt the Law on Customs Offenses of BiH, the Council of Ministers then made a new decision by which the start of the application of the NCTS in BiH was moved to August 1, 2021. Unfortunately, even in that period of one month, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH did not sit and did not adopt the Law on Customs Offenses of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, stated Kovačević.

After that, as he added, this institution no longer worked, so the BiH Council of Ministers had to make a new decision, which moved the start of the application of the NCTS to January 1 of this year. As the Parliament of BiH did not act until then, the Council of Ministers of BiH again made a decision to postpone the start of the application of the NCTS to April 1 of this year.

“In the meantime, the Law on Customs Offenses was adopted only in one chamber of the Parliament of BiH, while it was still not adopted in the other chamber, which forced the Council of Ministers of BiH to again adopt a new decision, which moves the start of the application of the NCTS in BiH to 1 . August of this year. Given that the Law on Customs Offenses of BiH was finally adopted in the Parliament of BiH, the beginning of the application of the Law on Customs Policy of BiH and NCTS (paperless transit) definitely begins on August 1 of this year,” emphasized Kovačević.

The new electronic transit system (NCTS) involves the processing of customs declarations without paper. This means that all participants in electronic traffic (importers, exporters and forwarders) will send transit declarations exclusively electronically to the new system in the ITA. Such documents must be signed with a new digital qualified signature, in order to have the same legal force as the documents that are submitted on paper today and which are certified with an ordinary signature and seal.

“Specifically, this means that the entire procedure of transit of goods will take place much faster and with lower costs. Namely, once the goods leave BiH and when the transit customs declaration is entered into the system, all customs services, from the customs office of the place of departure of the goods, through the customs services of the countries in transit, to the customs service of the country where the final destination of the goods is, will have access to that document. In this way, the detention of trucks at border crossings will be much shorter and, therefore, the costs will be lower. Of course, this new electronic transit system it must first function for one year at the national level in BiH, and after that BiH becomes a full member of the NCTS convention,” Kovačević told Fena.

Source: https://fena.ba/article/1275646/sistem-ncts-carinjenje-bez-papira-od-1-augusta-u-bih