MINSK, 31 August (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Chairman of the Belarusian State Customs Committee Vladimir Orlovsky on 31 August, BelTA informs.
“I should say that under your leadership the system has been working well this year. According to the data and figures that you gave me, it would be great to keep the positive dynamics in 2021,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
According to the president, in spite of the existing difficulties, including the sanctions pressure, the flow of freight vehicles through the customs border has increased by 12% this year. “This is a good trend,” he said.
“In January-August the number of freight vehicles crossing the border increased by 10,000,” Vladimir Orlovsky specified.
“I think we can do even better till the end of the year,” the head of state believes.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also focused on the modernization of border checkpoints. In his words, the improvement of the customs infrastructure is important especially because of the constantly increasing flow of cargoes. “What can you say about the progress in the construction of these border checkpoints? It is very important,” the president stressed.
According to the State Customs Committee, as of 27 August the revenues to the state budget made up Br6.4 billion worth of customs payments. This amount is 25% higher than the amount paid in the same period of 2020.
The flow of freight vehicles crossing the border increased by 12% (about 1.6 million). The volume of cargoes transported by road went up 11% to 21 million tonnes.
The revenues to the budget of the customs service's law enforcement bodies went up 62% to about Br23 million as against 2020. Officials detected 335 attempts of illegal drugs trafficking (207 cases in the same period of 2020). Over 433kg of drugs were removed from illegal circulation, up five times in comparison with the previous year.
The improvement of the customs infrastructure is in progress. The majority of funds was injected in the renovation of the Verkhny Terebezhov border checkpoint. Its throughput capacity increased 3.5 times to 900 vehicles per day. The gradual increase of the throughput capacity of border checkpoints testifies to the efficiency of the modernization efforts. In 2002 it made up 11,000 cars per day. At the beginning of 2021 the throughput capacity reached 32,000 cars per day.
