e-Transport becomes mandatory for several categories of transport. What’s new in applying the system?23 January 2024

The obligation to monitor road transport through the e-Transport IT system was extended at the end of last year, with the authorities forcing companies to obtain UIT codes for international goods transport as well. Until now, the system was only mandatory for goods considered to be of high fiscal risk. Beyond the expansion of e-Transport, through the same legislative amendment, new obligations were introduced for transporters requiring them to equip their vehicles with GPS, and in the coming months other novelties are being prepared for the application of the monitoring system.
By GEO no. 115/2023, published on December 15 in the Official Gazette, the authorities have extended the provisions of e-Transport to the international transport of goods transiting the territory of Romania, regardless of the category of transported goods. Practically, at this moment the system is mandatory:
• for goods considered with high fiscal risk, both for national and international transports;
• for any kind of goods, if they are transported internationally.
Through e-Transport, taxpayers must declare in advance the movement of goods considered to be of high fiscal risk, by obtaining a unique code, called the UIT code, which must be entered on the transport documents. The e-Transport includes data on the sender and recipient, the name, characteristics, quantities and value of the transported goods, loading and unloading places, details on the means of transport used and the UIT code of the respective transport.
For international transports, recently introduced in the scope of e-Transport, the obligation to generate the UIT code falls, depending on the type of operation, on one of the actors involved in the transport relationship.
Thus, while for imports and exports, the obligation to generate the UIT code falls on the consignee or sender registered in the customs import declaration, for intra-Community purchases or deliveries of goods, the obligation rests with either the beneficiary or the supplier in Romania. When the goods are the subject of intra-Community transactions in transit, obtaining the UIT code and declaring the transport must be done by the warehousemen.
Failure to comply with the obligations to declare international shipments of goods in the RO e-Transport system is sanctioned with a fine from 20,000 lei to 100,000 lei, in the case of legal entities, as well as confiscation of the value of the undeclared goods. However, the normative act establishes that the contraventional sanctions for non-compliance with the new obligations regarding the international road transport of goods will only come into force on July 1, 2024, practically giving companies a period of time to assimilate the news and comply.
In addition to expanding the system, GEO no. 115/2023 also introduced new obligations, which specifically target carriers. More specifically, the ordinance additionally provides that, for road transports that are subject to e-Transport monitoring, the operator is obliged to equip the transport vehicle with telecommunication terminal devices, and the driver of the vehicle is obliged to turn on the positioning device before starting the transport in the national territory and to keep it in operation until the declared place of delivery in the national territory or after leaving the national territory.
What other changes are expected to e-Transport
Beyond these already formalized novelties, the application of the e-Transport system would be extended once more in the coming months as it appears from a draft order, still in the approval process at ANAF. The project proposes that, from March 2024, the list of risky products targeted for monitoring through the e-Transport system will be completed to include other consumer goods such as meat, milk, eggs, honey and tobacco.
Thus, on the existing list of goods with high fiscal risk, other CN codes would be introduced: meat and edible offal (CN codes: 0201 – 0210), fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates (CN codes: 0302, 0304, 0306), milk, milk products, poultry eggs, natural honey and other edible products of animal origin (CN codes: 0401 – 0407, 0409), various tobacco products (CN codes: 2401, 2403, 2404).
These changes have not yet been formalized, but in the draft order put up for public debate on the ANAF website, it is stated that they would enter into force starting on March 1.
Also, in the category of legislative amendments, it is worth knowing that there is still another project of order, also in public debate, through which ANAF also proposes a series of optimizations to the operating procedure of the e-Transport system, including rules that allow the confirmation of the declared data of operators, as well as changes in the process of automatic verification of shipments.
Article published in TaxNews