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17.03.2022
Customs clearance of third-country postal items at Latvijas Pasts, provided that the sender has digitally indicated accurate and complete data about the item and depending on the chosen type of customs clearance and the content of the item, takes from a few minutes in the mobile application of Latvijas Pasts atmuito.pasts.lv to a maximum of two business days through a postal broker. The most important precondition for fast customs clearance of items is correct data, which Latvijas Pasts must receive electronically from the country of dispatch of the item.
As of the 1st of July 2021, a new tax application system for postal items from third countries came into force throughout the European Union (EU), affecting every Latvian resident who makes purchases in online stores of third countries or receives items from friends or relatives living outside the EU. Each and every item from outside the EU, including gifts and low-value purchases, is subject to customs clearance, which must be carried out individually by each recipient of the item.
More than eight months have now passed since the new procedure was introduced, and both digital data exchange between countries and customers’ awareness of the need for customs clearance have stabilised and improved. The most important cornerstone for the success of customs clearance is the correct exchange of data between the postal establishments of the country of dispatch of the item and the country of destination.
The EU has set up a single electronic mail exchange system, and the accuracy and completeness of the data entered into it is the responsibility of the postal establishment of the country from which the specific item was sent. Manual updating of data during customs clearance procedures is not permitted and is not possible, therefore Latvijas Pasts and any other postal operator, which is the final entity delivering the item, is entitled to rely in its operations only on the data received from the country of dispatch or on the supporting documents submitted by the recipient of the item: consequently, the clarification of any type of data takes time.
“Over the eight months since the introduction of the new procedure in the European Union, Latvijas Pasts has continuously tackled the issues of improving the quality of digital data with various companies, because, unfortunately, the data have been incomplete and inaccurate on a regular basis. As a result, for example, even postcards are indicated as items requiring customs clearance, or the customer in Latvia cannot clear the received item in time, as the data provided by the sender are incomplete. We can now see that the situation has improved, and the awareness of the parties involved and the quality of the data has increased, as a result of which we can clear items faster and our customers are more satisfied,” Agnese Bīdermane, Director of the Project Management Department at Latvijas Pasts, points out.
Currently, after receiving the correct data about an item in the electronic database, customs clearance of the item takes only a few minutes via the mobile application of Latvijas Pasts atmuito.pasts.lv and one or, at most, two business days when using the services of a postal broker.
In order to offer customers an easier process of customs clearance and receipt of items, Latvijas Pasts created a new digital solution: the application atmuito.pasts.lv. It allows choosing the type of customs clearance in a few steps and clearing postal items received from third countries easily through the intermediary of Latvijas Pasts.
Latvijas Pasts customers get a notification regarding the receipt of an item in the form of a mobile text message, provided that a correct mobile phone number of the recipient has been indicated, or as a printed notification in the recipient’s mailbox. The notification includes a link to the application atmuito.pasts.lv which is individual for each recipient. The link is unique, and only the customs clearance form corresponding to the specific item depending on the item value will open in the application: for items with a value up to 150 euro without excise goods it is a VAT calculation from the item value, whereas for items with a value above 150 euro it includes the possibility to attach documents required for declaration (invoice, payment order, etc.).
For more information on how to correctly clear postal items through customs see the State Revenue Service website and Latvijas Pasts website.
About SJSC Latvijas Pasts
Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with about 3,000 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by Kantar TNS, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Gundega Vārpa | Head of External Communications
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
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