A recently published law that has already entered into force clarifies the obligation to declare road transports of risky goods, explicitly extending it to any economic operator who carries out such transports, therefore including those who transport goods with their own vehicles. Until now, the legislation was not clear enough in this regard, as a consequence it was understood that the obligation rested exclusively with professional road hauliers.

Law no. no. 233/2023, applicable from July 23, 2023, unequivocally extends the obligation to report road transport in e-Transport to other taxpayers, who seemed to be unaffected by this system until now.

More precisely, the extension refers to companies that transport in their own name, with their own vehicles, goods classified by ANAF as having a high fiscal risk.

Practically, with the new regulations, it is very clear that Cash & Carry stores, hypermarkets or any other type of economic operator will have to obtain and hold UIT codes for each transport, the obligation not being limited only to road transporters. Fines for not reporting shipments in e-Transport can reach up to 100,000 lei.

We remind you that, 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.

Not every shipment must be declared in the system, but only those that exceed certain significance limits imposed for the reporting obligation. Currently, the categories of road vehicles that must be reported in RO e-Transport are those that have a maximum authorized mass of at least 2.5 tons and that are loaded with high fiscal risk goods with a total gross mass of more than 500 Kg or a total value greater than 10,000 lei.

The value of the transported goods refers to the known value, according to the commercial, financial or accounting documents and does not include VAT, and in the case of commercial transactions settled in foreign currency, the conversion into lei is made at the NBR exchange rate valid on the date of the transport declaration in e-Transport .

Also, the list of goods considered risky by ANAF includes vegetables, plants, fruits, alcoholic beverages, certain construction materials, clothing and footwear, all included in certain tariff codes expressly specified by the authorities. Thus, reports must be made for:

• vegetables, plants, roots and tubers, edible, falling under CN codes 0701 to 0714;

• edible fruits; peel of citrus fruits or melons, falling within CN codes 0801 to 0814;

• beverages, alcoholic liquids and vinegar (excluding excisable products that circulate under excise duty suspension regime), which fall under CN codes from 2201 to 2208;

• salt; sulphur; soils and stones; plaster, lime and cement, falling within CN codes 2505 and 2517;

• knitted or crocheted clothing and clothing accessories falling within CN codes 6101 to 6117;

• clothing and clothing accessories, other than knitted or crocheted, falling within CN codes 6201 to 6212 and CN codes 6214 to 6217;

• footwear, gaiters and similar articles; parts of these articles falling within CN codes 6401 to 6405;

• cast iron, iron and steel, falling within CN codes 7213 and 7214.

The e-Transport system is available in the Virtual Private Space, found on the ANAF website. To use the IT system, economic operators must be registered in the SPV, in their own name or through a legal representative, through a designated representative or through a proxy.

The contraventional regime sanctions both the lack of reporting and incorrect reporting, and the fines are between 5,000 and 100,000 lei, and for certain acts there is even a complementary sanction of confiscation of the value of the transported goods.

The highest fines – between 20,000 and 100,000 lei, to which the confiscation of the value of the goods is added – are applied for not declaring transports in the RO e-Transport system or for declaring different quantities of goods.

The same amounts of fines (between 20,000 and 100,000 lei), but without confiscation, apply for not declaring all types of goods transported, for not writing the UIT code on the transport document or for changing the data registered in RO e-Transport after the start of the transport.

There are also other sanctions, namely fines between 5,000 and 10,000 lei, applicable for the failure of the driver of the vehicle to present the documents accompanying the transport of goods with a high fiscal risk.

Article published in Business-Mark.ro