Finland to take up illegal truck fees with Russian authorities next month

print this

Finland is taking up the illegal fees that Russian customs officials have been collecting from hauliers for crossings at the eastern at a meeting of the Russian-Finnish working group on cargo traffic in November-December.
      The charges have been imposed at least at the Svetogorsk Customs Station across the border from Imatra.
      "Problems with truck traffic at the eastern border have been taken up on a regular basis, whenever they have surfaced", says State Secretary Perttu Puro from the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
     
The problems with eastbound truck traffic were last handled at ministerial level in September.
      At that time the biggest problem was the backlog of trucks on the eastern border. Right after the meeting of the Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications and her Russian counterpart, the Government of Finland made a decision to take certain actions in order to resolve such traffic problems.
      "The whole border crossing issue involves serious problems, and I cannot tell how big a role illegal fees are playing in this situation", Puro notes.
     
The issue of the illegal fees extorted from hauliers was handled at the National Board of Customs on Monday after Helsingin Sanomat had reported the problems.
      According to Tommi Kivilaakso, the Director of the Eastern Customs District, the news caused quite an uproar.
      "The news was interpreted as saying that illegal fees are common at all border crossing points. However, all we know is what has happened at Svetogorsk", Kivilaakso commented.
      Kivilaakso reported further that he received calls on Monday from several truck drivers who were aware of the extortion problems at Svetogorsk.
     
"They asked what was new in the situation, as illegal fees have been collected for years. I myself work in Eastern Finland, and to us this did not come as a surprise", Kivilaakso noted.
      Kivilaakso mentioned that he had received calls also from drivers who use some other border crossing points than Svetogorsk. To them the collection of illegal fees was news.
      "In the Russian traffic, many phenomena are local and depend on the crossing point. When negotiating with Russia, it would be easier if all border crossing stations operated according to uniform rules", Kivilaakso argued.
      The Russian Transport Inspection Authority RTI is said to be an example of the Russian authorities who collect fees that are regarded as unfair. The RTI inspects all documents presented by truck drivers and weighs the trucks. Sometimes also cars with no cargo are stopped to be weighed.
      "If they cannot impose fines, they have the right to collect a control fee for the weighing. The Finns find such actions arbitrary."
     
Kivilaakso stresses that such illegal or unnecessary fees collected from hauliers are nevertheless a minor issue when it comes to the corruption of the Russian officials.
      "These fees are a minor matter when compared with a situation in which a valuable cargo is routed past the border control completely or with the use of fraudulent double invoicing", Kivilaakso concludes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Illegal fees collected from hauliers at Russian border customs station (23.10.2006)

Links:
  The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland
  Finnish Customs

Helsingin Sanomat