THE CUSTOMS CODE OF THE REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN

This Code shall establish the legal, economic and organizational principles of the customs affairs and shall be aimed at protecting the sovereignty and economic security of the Republic of Tajikistan, enhancing the links of the economy of the Republic of Tajikistan within the system of the global economic relations, safeguarding the rights of individuals, economic entities and state bodies, and ensuring the observance by them of their obligations in the area of customs affairs.

SECTION I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
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C H A P T E R 1. BASIC PROVISIONS

Article 1
Customs regulation and customs affairs in the Republic of Tajikistan

1. Customs regulation consists of establishing the procedures and rules complying
of which persons exercise the right to convey goods and means of transport across the customs border of the Republic of Tajikistan (hereinafter referred to as the customs border).
Customs regulation shall be executed in accordance with this Code and other normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan.
2. Customs affairs shall constitute the totality of methods and means ensuring compliance with measures of customs tariff regulation, prohibitions and restrictions that are established in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan in the area of state regulation of foreign economic activities relating to conveyance of goods and means of transport across the customs border.
3. The government of the Republic of Tajikistan shall perform the overall
administration of customs affairs in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.
The authorized body on customs affairs shall ensure direct realization for customs purposes of the objectives in the area of customs affairs and uniform application of the customs legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan by all customs bodies within the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.
4. The Republic of Tajikistan shall participate in international cooperation in the area of customs regulation in order to harmonize and unify legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan with norms of international law and with generally accepted international practices.

Article 2
Entering into force of normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan in the area of customs affairs

1. Normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan in the area of customs affairs, officially published within the first and (or) second months of the quarter, shall enter into force on the first date of the month of the quarter directly following the quarter in which they were published.
If normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan in the area of customs affairs are published within the third month of the quarter, they shall enter into force on the first date of the second month of the quarter directly following the quarter in which they were officially published

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be applied if other term of the entering into force is stipulated in the normative legal acts in the area of customs affairs relating to entering into force.

Article 5
Retroactivity of normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan in the area of customs affairs

1. Normative legal acts, regulating legal relations in the area of customs affairs, shall
not effective with regard to legal relations arisen prior to their entering into force unless otherwise is specified in these acts or in the acts concerning their entering into force.
2. The norms establishing or toughening the responsibility or assigning additional
obligations on the objects of customs legal relations shall not be retroactive.
The norms softening the responsibility assigned on the participants of customs legal relations shall be retroactive.

Article 6
Requirements for Customs Legislation Acts, Other Normative Legal Acts of the Republic of Tajikistan, Acts of the Authorized Body on Customs affairs

1. Provisions of customs legislation acts and normative legal acts in the area of customs affairs shall be formulated in such a way as to ensure that every legal entity or a natural person shall know exactly what are its/his/her rights and obligations as well as what actions, when and how (under which procedures) are to be performed when conveying goods and means of transport across the customs border.
2. The provisions of legal acts of the authorized body on customs affairs may not contradict the provisions of customs legislation acts and other normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan or establish requirements, prohibitions and restrictions which are not provided for by the customs legislation acts and other normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Normative legal acts of the authorized body on customs affairs shall be mandatory and shall be applied in coordination with the state authorized body including the authorized body in the area of foreign trade activities.
3. Nobody may be held responsible for a violation of customs rules if such a violation was caused by collision (vagueness) of legal norms established by normative legal acts in the area of customs affairs.
4. Normative legal acts of the authorized body on customs affairs relating to the rules and legitimate interests of the persons in the area of entrepreneurial an other business activities may be appealed in the judicial order in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Article 7
Use of Customs and Tariff Regulation Measures and Prohibitions and Restrictions Established in Compliance with Normative Legal Acts of the Republic of Tajikistan

Measures of customs and tariff regulation and prohibitions and restrictions established in compliance with normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan effective on the date of registration of a customs declaration shall be used in the area of customs affairs.

Article 8
Method of Calculation of Deadlines Established by this Code

1. Dates of start and expiry of time periods established by this Code or even occurrence dates shall be determined under the procedure stipulated by this Code.
2. If this Code does not establish a special procedure for calculation of time periods, then the rules established by legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan shall be used for determination of the date of start and the date of expiry of time periods for customs purposes, considering the provisions of Paragraph 3 of Article 129 of this Code.

Article 9
Treatment of Information Received by Customs Authorities

1. Any information received by customs authorities in accordance with normative legal acts, other legislative acts of the Republic of Tajikistan, acts of the authorized body on customs affairs may be used for customs purposes exclusively.
2. Customs authorities and customs officials, other persons who have access to information specified in Paragraph 1 of this Article by virtue of law or a contract, have no right to disclose, use for personal purposes or transfer to the third parties, including government agencies, information which constitutes the national, commercial, banking, tax or other secret protected by law as well as other confidential information, except for cases established by this Code and other normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Customs authorities shall give the central executive bodies information provided to them, if such information is required by the said bodies for the execution of tasks set forth for them by the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan, in the procedure agreed upon by both the authorized body on customs affairs and the relevant central executive body, meeting the requirements of legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan for protection of the national, commercial, banking, tax or other secret protected by law as well as other confidential information.
Executive bodies, their officials and other persons who by virtue of law have access to the information received from the customs authorities, have no right to disclose, distribute, use for personal purposes or transfer the said information to the third parties, except for the cases established by legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.
3. Information specified in Paragraph 1 of this Article, which constitutes the national, commercial, banking, tax or other secret protected by law as well as other confidential information shall have special regimes of storage and access.
4. The loss of documents containing the national, commercial, banking, tax or other secret protected by law as well as other confidential information, disclosure of such information, use of it for personal purposes or its transference to the third parties shall entail a liability envisaged by legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Article 10
Basic Terms Used in this Code

1. Basic terms used in this Code are as follows:
1) Customs operations - separate actions with regard to goods and means of transport performed by persons and customs authorities during customs clearance of goods and means of transport
2) Taxes - value-added tax and excise tax levied by customs authorities in connection with conveyance of goods across the customs border in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
3) Internal taxes - value-added tax and excise tax levied by customs bodies on circulation of goods on the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
4) Carrier - a person conveying goods across the customs territory and (or) conveyance of goods under the customs control within the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or being responsible for use of means of transport
5) customs broker (representative) - an intermediary who performs customs operations on behalf and (or) on the instruction of a declarant or another person who undertakes the responsibility or who is given the right to perform customs operations in compliance with this Code
6) importation of goods and (or) means of transport into the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan - actual crossing by goods and (or) means of transport of the customs border and all the ensuing consequent operations with the goods and (or) means of transport stipulated by this Code prior to their release by customs authorities
7) means of transport - any river vessel (including self-propelled and dumb barges and lighters as well as hydrofoils), hovercraft, aircraft, automotive vehicle (including trailers, semi-trailers and combined vehicles) or a railway rolling-stock unit which are used in international transportation for charged carriage of persons (passengers) or for charged or free industrial or commercial transportation of goods as well as their regular spare parts, accessories and equipment, fuels, oil and lubricants contained in their regular refill tanks, if these are transported together with the means of transport
8) declarant - a person who declares goods or in whose name is a declaration is made
9) customs declaration - a document of an established format containing information required for submission to the customs body in compliance with this Code
10) conveyance of goods and (or) means of transport the customs border -undertaking
activities to import goods and (or) means of transport to the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or to export goods and (or) means of transport from this territory by any method
11) illegal conveyance of goods and (or) means of transport across the customs border - undertaking actions for importing goods and (or) means of transport into the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or for exporting them from this territory in violation of the procedure established by this Code
12) release of goods - actions of customs authorities to permit goods to be used or disposed by the persons concerned in accordance with a customs regime
13) conditional release - release of goods and means of transport with restrictions and
provisions on the use and disposal thereof
14) authorized body on customs affairs - a relevant state body authorized by the
government of the Republic of Tajikistan to ensure direct realization for customs purposes of the objectives in the area of customs affairs and uniform application of the customs legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan by all customs bodies within the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.
15) customs authorities - the authorized body in the area of customs affairs and its
subordinate customs bodies of the Republic of Tajikistan, except in cases when customs bodies of foreign states are specified in this Code
16) goods - any sort of movable property conveyed across the customs border both for commercial and non-commercial purposes as well as vehicles attributed to immovables conveyed across the customs border. Vehicles specified in sub-Paragraph 7 of this Paragraph shall not be considered as goods
17) domestic goods - goods which have for customs purposes the status of goods being in free circulation on the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan, i. e. goods which have not been exported from the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan, goods which have been wholly produced in the Republic of Tajikistan, goods released for free circulation on the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan, and goods made in the Republic of Tajikistan using goods wholly produced in the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or using goods released for free circulation on the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan
18) foreign goods - goods not specified as domestic goods
19) goods placed under the customs control - foreign goods imported into the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan prior to their release for free circulation and their de facto crossing of the customs border for exportation or prior to their destruction as well as domestic goods being exported from the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan prior to their de facto crossing of the customs border
20) free circulation - circulation of goods on the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan without prohibitions and restrictions stipulated by customs legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
21) customs control - a whole set of measures taken by customs authorities to ensure compliance with the customs legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
22) a customs regime - a customs procedure which determines a whole set of requirements and provisions, including the procedure for charging customs duties and taxes and applying of prohibitions and restrictions established by normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan with regard to goods and means of transport as well as the status of goods and means of transport for customs purposes depending on the purpose of their conveyance across the customs border and their use on the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or beyond of its boundaries
23) a customs procedure - a whole set of provisions which stipulate the procedure for performing customs operations and determine the status of goods and means of transport for customs purposes
24) export of goods and (or) means of transport from the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan - submission of a customs declaration or performance of actions specified in point 2 of this sub-Paragraph, directly aimed at exporting goods and (or) means of transport as well as all the ensuing consequent operations with goods and (or) means of transport stipulated by this Code prior to their actual crossing of the customs border.
Entry of the customs control zone by a natural person leaving the Republic of Tajikistan, entry of the border checkpoint on the national border of the Republic of Tajikistan by an automobile vehicle in order to leave the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan delivery of goods to transport organizations or delivery of international mail to postal organizations for sending outside the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan, actions of a person/entity directly aimed at actual crossing by goods and (or) means of transport of the customs border outside locations established in compliance with legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan are all attributed to actions directly aimed at exportation of goods and (or) means of transport from the customs territory of the Republic of Tajikistan
25) status of goods and vehicles for customs purposes - the existence or absence of prohibitions and restrictions for the use and disposal of goods and means of transport established by this Code
26) persons concerned - persons whose interests are directly and personally/individually concerned by decisions, actions (inaction) of customs authorities with regard to goods and (or) means of transport, unless otherwise ensuing from this Code
27) persons - natural persons and legal entities, unless otherwise ensuing from this Code
28) foreign persons - persons not specified as domestic persons
29) domestic persons- a citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan, stateless person who has permanent residence in the Republic of Tajikistan, individual entrepreneur registered in the Republic of Tajikistan in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan as well as a legal entity established in compliance with the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
30) domestic legal entity - legal entity established in accordance with legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
31) freight forwarder - a person acting under the agreement of transport freight in accordance with the civil legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan
32) commercial documents - invoice, shipping and packing lists and other documents which are used in compliance with international legal acts ratified by the Republic of Tajikistan, with normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan or with established traditions used for business transactions when carrying out external economic or other activities and which by virtue of law, contract, agreement of the parties or business traditions are used for confirmation of the effect of the transaction related to conveyance of goods across the customs border, unless otherwise ensuing from this Code
33) customs documents - documents drawn up for customs purposes
34) transportation (conveyance) documents - a bill of lading, invoice or other documents confirming the existence and the content of a contract for transportation of goods and accompanying goods and means of transport during international transportation
2. All other terms shall be used in this Code in the meaning determined by other normative legal acts of the Republic of Tajikistan.