Customs officers at the "Grigorovshchina" checkpoint will conduct cargo inspections without opening it, using modern technologies

A seminar-meeting was held at the Vitebsk Customs dedicated to the completion of the construction of a stationary X-ray inspection and screening complex on the border with Latvia in Grigorovshchina, Verkhnedvinsk district. Representatives of Vitebsk region enterprises engaged in foreign trade activities and officials took part in it.

Sergey Samushchev, Deputy Head of the Vitebsk Customs for the organization of customs clearance and control, acquainted those present in detail with the progress of the international technical assistance project within the framework of the cross-border cooperation program, the main share of which was contributed by the European Union.

The initiative with a total budget of 2.8 million euros is being implemented by the State Customs Committee of Belarus, the Vitebsk and Minsk Central Customs in cooperation with the State Revenue Service of the Republic of Latvia. Its goal is to introduce new technology at the "Grigorovshchina" border crossing point, which allows scanning to carry out inspections without opening the carrier's cargo, which will significantly save time. It is important that all environmental standards for radiation will be maximally observed. Thanks to a reliable system of light and sound insulation, the project in this regard can be considered the best in the republic.

Sergey Samushchev cited figures characterizing the steady growth in the number of freight vehicles crossing the Belarusian section of the Customs Union border: from 1.9 million units in 2010 to 2.4 million in 2014. Therefore, the task is to minimize the waiting time and customs clearance. It is planned to increase the throughput from 18 thousand cars per day in 2009 to 34 thousand in 2015.

The downtime minimization program provides for the implementation of the "two services at the border" principle (in particular, customs authorities have been transferred the functions of vehicle control regarding vehicles and documents, sanitary-quarantine, and phytosanitary veterinary control), reducing the time for data entry and processing, increasing the throughput of existing checkpoints and opening new ones, applying the system of preliminary electronic information, and improving the technology of customs operations.

The use of this complex at the road border crossing, and its implementation may take place as early as the end of the year, as officials assure, will allow customs control of goods and vehicles to be brought to a qualitatively new level and significantly increase security in the cross-border region.

Ales Byńkov, "Vitebskiye Vesti"