MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) – Only 30% of the freight cleared at the Belarusian border is supposed to be delivered to a destination inside Belarus. The other 70% is transit freight, BelTA learned from Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Yuri Senko on 27 January.
The official said: “Only 30% of the freight is processed at the border as goods intended for Belarus, Belarusian goods. The other 70% is transit goods bound for other countries. Goods intended for the Russian Federation or being exported from the Russian Federation represent 80% of the transit freight.”
Yuri Senko also mentioned the reconstruction of the border checkpoint Urbany, which is nearly finished. The modernization has already cost Br34 million. “The first stage will be fully finished in the first quarter of the year. Redistribution from the old infrastructure to the new one is in progress. We will have to build the second stage – an x-raying complex – by the end of the year. It will be built using international technical aid,” the head of Belarus' Customs noted.
In 2019 the Belarusian customs service attracted a total of €23 million in international technical aid. More than half of the sum (about €12 million) was granted by China. The rest was granted by countries of the European Union.
In 2019 as much as 111 million tonnes of incoming and outgoing freight crossed the Belarusian border, 3.2 million tonnes down from 2018. The decrease is primarily attributed to lower coal transit from Russia by rail. The overall amount of incoming transit freight into the Eurasian Economic Union via Belarus rose by 5.4% to 17.5 million, including 11.4 million tonnes bound for Russia. The number of trucks that crossed the Belarusian border also rose by 5.1% to 2.3 million, which means automobile border checkpoints had to handle more traffic.
