Azernews.Az

By Jamila Babayeva

The idea of establishing common customs posts with neighboring countries is not as simple as it seems, chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee said.

"Such attempts have already been made in previous years, but have not been realized" Aydin Aliyev told Trend Agency on May 26.

Aliyev notes that the main problem is the issue of jurisdiction

"There's no such thing as neutral territories today. Every land belongs to one or another country," Aliyev said. "Moreover, in case of violating the customs regime or paperwork, several issues arose. They concern the body which will investigate violations, the regulations to be used, and many other issues."

He said establishing common posts is an idea: "At present, it is difficult to talk about its implementation in accordance with the initial expectations."

Earlier it was reported that Azerbaijan and Georgia are working in this direction.

Vakhtang Lashkaradze, Head of the Information Technologies Center of Georgian Finance Ministry's Revenue Service (a body combining the functions of taxes and customs authorities), said a pilot project was launched in late February at the Red Bridge (Tsiteli Khidi, also called Sinig Korpu from the Azerbaijani side) customs checkpoint.

The project includes a system for exchanging information about imports and exports between the customs authorities of the two countries.

Another pilot project for creating a unified customs post was also launched there.

Lashkaradze said despite some small errors, a trial run has shown this project to be effective and promising.

He noted that a unified processing of information on the cargos crossing the border and common customs points will be realized in the long run across the customs border between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Lashkaradze also said the agreement on sharing data will be signed this year, probably in September.

There are six customs posts between Azerbaijan and Georgia, controlled by the Balakan and Tovuz customs administrations, and including Sadikhli, Sinig Korpu, Jandargel, Mazimchay, Muganli road posts, and Boyuk Kasik railway post.