Since the beginning of December, the rules for declaring and passing humanitarian aid, including vehicles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, have changed.
The Institute for Automotive Market Research talked with volunteers of the Volyn Humanitarian Initiative NGO and Levko Prokipchuk, an expert on the practical application of customs legislation of the Association of Professional Customs Intermediaries, and formed practical tips that will help you not stay long at checkpoints.
First. Any humanitarian cargo can now be registered exclusively to a charitable organization that is included in the Unified Register of Humanitarian Aid Recipients. Therefore, you should make sure in advance that your organization (or on behalf of which you are acting as a volunteer) is on the mentioned register.
You can obtain a registration number in the Register in two ways: using an electronic digital signature or by completing the authorization procedure by the Ministry of Social Policy.
The first method is available only to authorized persons of the recipient of humanitarian aid who have an electronic signature of the organization. Attempts to independently enter data into the Register “on the go” only lead to system overload, volunteers note.
The second method is possible without an electronic digital signature in automatic mode. You need to enter information about the organization into the system, upload electronic copies of documents and automatically receive the number of the recipient of assistance. This method was intended for foreign organizations, but it can also be used by Ukrainian NGOs and foundations, says Levko Prokipchuk.
Second. To register the cargo and/or vehicle, you need to submit an updated customs declaration form, in which a separate paragraph has appeared to indicate the number of the recipient of humanitarian aid. This can be done both in paper form and electronically.. True, the last option still works only in theory — on the first day of the new rules, the state online service crashed and was temporarily unavailable.
Third. Vehicles can now be imported only for the benefit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Public organizations and charitable foundations have lost the possibility of simplified registration of cars for their own use (statutory purposes). Now in the customs declaration column, next to the recipient of humanitarian aid, it is necessary to indicate that the vehicle is being imported for further transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and this is enough for registration, says Levko Prokipchuk.
But within 90 days, such “humanitarian” vehicles must be handed over to the organization to one of the military units, having drawn up an acceptance certificate and reporting on it, the expert notes. If bill 9111 of March 16, 2023, which is now sent to the President for signature, comes into force, a car imported by a public organization or fund can be transferred to a specific military personnel or individual. If not, you will have to transfer it to a military unit.
Fourth. The simplified declaration mechanism — that is, filing a paper customs declaration directly at the checkpoint — will be valid only until April 1, 2024. After this date, it will be possible to bring humanitarian cargo only with a pre-submitted electronic declaration.