Measures to Be Taken to Accelerate Vehicle Flow at the Sarp Border Gate

Dear Member,

In the letter sent to our Chamber by TOBB, with reference to the letter dated 06.04.2023 received from the Kaçkar Customs and Foreign Trade Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Trade, it was stated that the activities carried out by the Regional Directorates through initiatives with the relevant organizations to accelerate vehicle flow at the Sarp Border Gate are presented below.

These are:

• VETERINARY SERVICES: By ensuring that the Veterinary Border Control Point operates on a 7 days, 24 hours basis, vehicles subject to control have been prevented from waiting in our area for veterinary control between 21:00 and 09.00.
• INSURANCE SERVICES: By increasing the number of staff of the UMAT company from 2 to 3 (planned to increase to 4 in the near future), delays arising from vehicle insurance procedures have been largely prevented.
• PASSPORT REGISTRATION PROCEDURES: As a result of starting to complete the passport registration exit procedures of commercial vehicles at the first entry point of our exit area, delays arising from the lack of passport police at the registration platforms have been prevented.
• IMPROVEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF THE AREA: By ensuring the transfer of a significant portion of vehicles subject to judicial and/or administrative proceedings to the temporary storage site in Kemalpaşa district, the entry and exit flow of vehicles in the area has been facilitated.
• CASH DESK PROCEDURES: By granting authorization in the BİLGE system to the staff at the duty point where the PTS registration is made at the first entry point of our exit area, enabling traffic fines/road tolls to be queried and paid before the commercial vehicle arrives at the registration platform, commercial vehicles have been prevented from waiting at the registration platform.
• INVOICED EXITS: As of 22.11.2022, in order to prevent the congestion experienced at the Sarp Border Gate, procedures for vehicles carrying invoiced goods transported by TIR/truck and deemed free of charge were terminated there and, as of the said date, started to be completed at the Hopa Customs Directorate.

The letter conveyed states that, although commercial vehicle flow at their Gates has been increased very significantly as a result of the improvements and arrangements made within the scope of the said activities, in addition to the devoted work of customs staff, the problem stems from the inadequate physical and technical infrastructure of the customs area, in other words from the lack of sufficient parking space for commercial vehicles; and it is stated that it has been observed that commercial vehicles wait and block the customs area at the Sarp Border Gate in both the entry and exit directions for the reasons listed below.

Reasons:

• In the Direction of Exit Abroad; many vehicles being turned back by the Georgian Customs Administration for reasons attributable to vehicle drivers and carrier companies:

1. On the part of vehicle drivers; not having a new-type driving licence/ID and/or not having an ADR (flammable) licence according to the load carried, or problems with expired passports and visas,
2. On the part of carrier companies; wishing to cross with a CMR or commercial invoice that does not contain the HS code
3. Goods within the scope of the economic sanctions applied to Russia not having a certificate of origin that can be verified electronically or not having a dozvola (transit permit). (In this way, an average of around 15 vehicles return from Georgia to the customs area.)

• In the Direction of Entry into Türkiye; problems arising from vehicle drivers, carrier companies and agents;

1. On the part of vehicle drivers; not having a power of attorney and valid insurance for the vehicles,
2. On the part of carrier companies; not having a pre-declaration (LR) in the NCTS Programme,
3. For containers, not entering registration data into the container tracking programme,
4. For TIR Carnets, entering our country without making a pre-declaration, without a special cargo transport document according to the load carried and/or the type of vehicle, or with missing documents (transit permit, insufficient guarantee, phytosanitary and health certificate, etc.),
5. Vehicles loaded with goods subject to veterinary control not having their controls carried out outside working hours for an increased fee, and waiting in the customs area for normal working hours,
6. The great majority of agents not carrying out procedures outside working hours and keeping drivers waiting.

The Regional Directorate has further stated that;

• in order that commercial vehicles exiting abroad using the customs area are not turned back from Georgia, drivers must carry their new-type driving licences/IDs and, if carrying flammable cargo, their ADR (flammable) licence; and transit documents (dozvola and Ubak), certificates of origin that can be verified electronically for goods within the scope of the economic sanctions applied to Russia, and CMRs or commercial invoices containing the HS code (it is sufficient for the HS code to appear on any one of them) must without fail be attached to the transit declaration for submission to the Georgian customs administrations,
• and that drivers of commercial vehicles entering our country must carry their powers of attorney and traffic insurance, and must not enter our country without making a pre-declaration in the NCTS/TIR Tracking Programme, without a special cargo transport document according to the type of vehicle, or with missing documents (transit permit, insufficient guarantee, phytosanitary and health certificate, etc.), and it has been stated that it is important for such missing documents to be completed at the TIR parks.

Kind regards,

Elazığ Chamber of Commerce and Industry