Customs clearance of goods in 2011

Customs clearance of goods, i.e. the general procedure for goods that is carried out before customs authority accounts for an important share of customs operations. The Customs Administration has been endeavouring to facilitate the procedures for companies and reduce their cost of operations by continuous modernisation of procedures, in particular by totally electronic – paperless operations between companies and the customs service and encouraging companies to use simplified declaration procedures. Such modernisation of procedures has a significant influence on the increasing economic competitiveness in Slovenia.

In 2011, there were a total of 760.217 declarations submitted, with 2.175.489 goods items received, or 6.9 % more customs declarations received and 8.7 % goods items more than in 2010.

Imports

Import procedures include the release of goods for free movement, customs warehousing, inward processing, processing prior to customs control, and temporary importation of goods.

In 2011, there is an increase in the number of customs declarations. There were 366,334 declarations received on import, or 48.19 % of the total declarations received in the year (42.27 % in 2010). They included 599,063 goods items which accounted for 27.54 % of total goods items. Compared to 2010, the number of export procedures increased by 8.7 %. Consequently, the value of cleared goods also increased and amounted to EUR 8,728,908,807 which accounts for 53.54 % of the whole statistical value or 10.83 % more than the previous year. The total net mass of cleared goods amounted to 9,609,587 tons or 2.48 % more than the previous year.

Table: Imports in the period from 2008 to 2011

In 2011, the rising trend in submitted declarations, number of goods items, value of imported goods and net mass of imports was followed by the number of companies that did business with customs. The number of companies involved in import procedures amounted to 9,866 or 4.46 % over the figure for 2010. The number of companies doing business with customs and using simplified customs procedures also increased. It amounted to 7,046 or almost 51 % more than the year before.

Exports 

The export procedures used include regular export and outward processing. In 2011, there were 393,883 declarations submitted for exports, or 51.81 % of the total declarations received in the year. They included 1,576,426 goods items accounting for 72.46 % of total goods items.

Similar to the number of import procedures, the number of export procedures also increased compared to 2010. The value of cleared goods amounted to EUR 7,574,440,304, which accounts for 46.46 % of the whole statistic value or 11.9 % more than in 2010. The total net mass of cleared goods decreased for 2.2 % over the previous year.

Table: Exports in the period from 2008 to 2011

As in the case of imports, the number of companies doing export business with customs increased compared to 2010. The number of companies doing export business with customs amounted to 8,141, the number of companies doing export business with customs and using simplified procedures to 6,081, or 2.5 % and 4.1 % more than in 2010.

Transit

Customs transit is a customs procedure used to facilitate the movement of goods between two points of a customs territory, via another customs territory, or between two or more different customs territories. It allows for the temporary suspension of duties, taxes and commercial policy measures that are applicable at import, thereby allowing customs clearance formalities to take place at the destination rather than at the point of entry into the customs territory.

In 2011, the number of initiated transit procedures in Slovenia amounted to 470,321, the number of completed transit procedures to 237,082. There was an increase in the number of transit declarations submitted in the simplified procedures initiated and completed in the head offices of the companies. In 2011, the share of these procedures accounted for 15 % of all initiated transit procedures. The share of simplified procedures with Slovenia stated as country of destination accounted for 33 %.

The Transit Section is responsible for correct completion of transit procedures over the entire territory of the Republic of Slovenia. The section carries out international enquiries in connection with transit procedures. There were 6,897 enquiries carried out for transits started in Slovenia. The number of applications for enquiries received from other contracting states amounted to 1,910. The debt resulting from 218 incorrectly completed transit procedures in 2011 amounted to EUR 1,502,062.30.