The Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance responds to the disinformation voiced by the guest of the August 13 program “Monetization” of the TV company “PALITRA NEWS”, Vakhtang Iobashvili, Chairman of the Union of Oil Importers.

“During the program, the Chairman of the Union of Oil Importers stated that “the Customs Department cannot ensure the passage of cargo and is only able to pass 45 vehicles. Time is nothing for customs officers”, which is a complete lie. For the sake of greater clarity, we announce that the customs checkpoint “Kazbegi” operates 24 hours a day and customs formalities are carried out for 800-1000 trucks (in both directions) throughout the day and night.

We want to clarify that in the conditions of increased cargo turnover, in order to ensure the smooth movement of vehicles, customs formalities for vehicles involved in international transportation are being carried out in an active mode at the customs checkpoint.

Accordingly, the information that the employees of the customs checkpoint “Kazbegi” are “no longer able to carry out control” is not true. It is important to note that the Revenue Service carries out customs control and formalities for goods and vehicles under customs supervision using a risk management system, which automatically processes data and assesses/determines the feasibility of implementing relevant customs control measures (for example, inspection of goods and/or vehicles, determination of the weight/quantity of goods) in a short period of time.

In the standard case, customs formalities for a freight vehicle are completed within no more than 15 minutes, and in the event that the goods and/or vehicle are subject to additional customs control, the specified time, taking into account the specifics of the customs formalities to be completed, increases by approximately 15-20 minutes.

Here, once again, we declare with full responsibility that the information disseminated by the Chairman of the Union of Petroleum Products Importers, Vakhtang Iobashvili, contains numerous inaccuracies, serves to mislead the public and discredit the agency. We call on interested parties to refrain from disseminating unverified and false information”, - reads the statement of the agency.