2024 updates for the Romanian e-Transport system

The legislation regarding the RO e-Transport system was amended for 2024. Through GEO 115/2023 published on December 15, the procedure for the use and operation of the national system for monitoring the transport of goods with high fiscal / customs risk RO e-Transport was updated.

The novelty brought by this order consists in the fact that the application of the RO e-Transport system has been extended for several categories of goods. At the same time, the updates bring new clarifications regarding the application of this system.

List of operations falling under the category of road transport subject to monitoring:

• Intra-community purchases – from the road border crossing point upon entering Romania to the place of unloading located on the national territory
• Intra-community deliveries - from the loading place located on the national territory to the road border crossing point at the exit from Romania
• Imports – from the place of import to the place of unloading located on the national territory
• Exports – from the place of loading located on the national territory to the export customs office located on the national territory or to the road border crossing point, as the case may be
• Domestic deliveries between two different economic operators between two locations located on the national territory from the place of loading to the place of unloading
• The transport of goods representing the transfer between the managements of an economic operator between the place of loading and the place of unloading, located on the national territory
• Intra-community transactions in transit on the national territory and involving loading, unloading and storage
• The transport on the national territory of the returned goods, which were not the subject of reception, between different economic operators or between an economic operator and a natural person
• The transport on the national territory of goods in the framework of commercial operations representing a non-transfer and the transport of goods representing stocks at the customer's disposal according to art. 270 paragraph (12) letter f) and art. 2701 of Law no. 227/2015 regarding the Fiscal Code.

The main changes brought to the application procedure of the RO e-Transport system by the new ordinance are:

1. The categories of road vehicles that are subject to monitoring in the RO e-Transport System:

• vehicles that have a technically permissible maximum mass of at least 2.5 tons, loaded with high fiscal risk goods with a total gross mass greater than 500 kg or a total value greater than 10,000 lei, related to at least one consignment of goods which is the object of the transport.

Prior to this change, the categories of road vehicles that were subject to monitoring in the RO e-transport system were vehicles with a maximum authorized weight of at least 3.5 tons.

2. Clarifications related to the establishment of the total gross mass and the total value of the goods that are the subject of the declaration in the RO e-Transport System:

• When determining the total gross mass of the goods that are the object of a batch of goods for which there is an obligation to declare in the RO e-Transport System, the packaging necessary for the commercialization and transport of the goods is also taken into account.
• To determine the total value of goods with high fiscal risk that are the subject of transport declared in the RO e-Transport System, the following will be taken into account:

a) the value of the transported goods does not include VAT;

b) in the case of commercial transactions settled in a foreign currency, the conversion into RON will be made at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Romania valid on the date of the transport declaration in the RO e-Transport System;

c) depending on the type of transaction declared in the RO e-Transport System, the value of the transported goods will refer to the known value according to commercial, financial or accounting documents, as the case may be, at the time of declaration.

3. The obligation to declare in the RO e-Transport System the data related to the international transport of goods rests with the following users:

• to the recipient listed in the import customs declaration, respectively to the sender listed in the export customs declaration, in the case of goods that are the subject of import or export operations, as the case may be;
• the beneficiary from Romania, in the case of intra-community purchases of goods;
• the supplier from Romania, in the case of intra-community deliveries of goods;
• to the depositary, in the case of goods that are the subject of intra-community transactions in transit, both for goods unloaded on Romanian territory for storage or for the formation of a new shipment from one or more consignments of goods, as well as for goods loaded after storage or after the formation of a new transport on the national territory of one or more consignments of goods.

4. Changing the data declared in the RO e-Transport system after obtaining the UIT code:

• During the 3 calendar days provided for in art. 11 paragraph (1) from Government Emergency Ordinance no. 41/2022, but no later than when the vehicle is actually put into motion on public roads, the data declared in the RO e-Transport System can be modified while keeping the original UIT code.
• After the actual movement of the vehicle on public roads, in order to update the information regarding the identification of the road transport vehicle, the transport organizer will access the RO e-Transport IT application through its own SPV account.

Other important aspects regarding the changes brought by the new E-Transport system Ordinance:

1. Information related to the data declared in e-Transport:

• If both goods with a high fiscal risk and other goods are transported within a commercial relationship, all categories of transported goods will be declared in the RO e-Transport System, for which the system will generate a single UIT code.
• For the transport of goods with a high fiscal risk carried out in the groupage system, a number of UIT codes equal to the number of lots of goods with a high fiscal risk that are the object of the respective transport is held.
• If the documents held by the users do not contain data for classifying the goods transported in one of the categories of goods with high fiscal risk, there is the obligation to declare in the RO e-Transport System the data related to the transports for all the goods transported, except for the data related to the category of goods, N.C. codes, net weight and value of transported goods.
• In the case of goods transportation with high fiscal risk that are the subject of export through an export customs office located in another member state of the European Union, the transport of goods with high fiscal risk is declared for the journey from the place of loading located on the national territory to the point border crossing road at the exit from Romania.

2. Goods partially received or not received:

• In the event that the goods with a high fiscal risk were not received or were partially received by the beneficiary/consignee mentioned in the RO e-Transport System at the time of obtaining the UIT code, the unreceived goods will return to the sender based on the initial UIT code.
• The subsequent return of the goods that have been received forms a new batch of goods for which it is necessary to obtain a new UIT code by the party returning the high tax risk goods.
• In the situations provided above, after receiving the returned goods if the obligation to declare rests with the supplier or after failure to carry out the reception if the obligation to declare rests with the beneficiary, the declarant will mention the return in the "Transport Confirmation" area of the RO eTransport IT application, selecting option "Denyed" or "Partially Confirmed", followed by mentioning the returned quantities in the "Confirmation Comment" data field. The data related to the return will be mentioned in the RO e-Transport System during the period of validity of the UIT code.

3. Transport declaration for the goods in the case of a non-transfer or stocks at the customer's disposal:

• To declare the transport of goods in the framework of commercial operations representing a non-transfer or the transport of goods representing stocks at the customer's disposal, the declarants will select in the RO e-Transport IT application the similar transport option in the "Operation type" data field, followed by the selection in the field of data "Purpose of the Operation" of an option in accordance with the destination of the transported goods.

4. Goods transported at national level with means of transport belonging to several transport categories:

• If goods with a high fiscal risk are transported at national level with means of transport belonging to several transport categories: naval, rail, air, road, only the road transport component will be declared in the RO e-Transport System, in which case the place of loading, respectively unloading, will be considered the place where the means of road transport will pick up or deliver, as the case may be, the transported goods.

5. Clarifications for the situation in which the transport is not completed on time:

• In the event that, exceptionally, the transport declared in the RO e-Transport System is not completed within the validity period of the UIT code, of 5 days or 15 calendar days - as the case may be, the declarant will deny the transport in the RO e-Transport System and will resume the operation of declaring the transport and obtaining a new UIT code. Thus, after the actual movement of the vehicle on public roads, within the validity period of the UIT code, the declarant can select the "Disabled" option in the "Transport Confirmation" area of the RO e-Transport application, mentioning the reason in the data field "Confirmation Comment" ", following which a new UIT code will be obtained for that transport according to the new data.

6. Establishing the value of the undeclared assets to be confiscated:

• If, on the occasion of finding the contravention, the sales invoice or the accompanying notice of the goods is presented, the value of the goods to be confiscated will be equal to the value of the goods with high fiscal risk not declared in the RO e-Transport System entered in the supporting documents presented.
• If, on the occasion of the detection of the contravention, the sales invoice or the accompanying notice of the goods is not presented, the counter value of the goods to be confiscated will be established according to the unit value of the goods with high fiscal risk from the previous transaction with similar products. By transaction with similar products is meant the previous purchase when the obligation to declare rests with the beneficiary, respectively the previous delivery when the obligation to declare rests with the supplier.
• In the event that, upon detection of the contravention, the sales invoice or the accompanying notice of the goods is not presented and the violator has no purchases/deliveries of similar products, the value of the goods will be determined on the basis of the average unit value of the goods with a high fiscal risk declared in the previous week in the RO e-Transport System for goods with high fiscal risk from the same tariff heading. In the event that goods from the same tariff heading were not declared in the RO e-Transport System in the previous week, the reference period will be extended by one week until similar products are identified in the RO e-Transport System.
• If the above conditions are not met, the counter value of the goods to be confiscated will be determined based on the average unit value of the goods with high fiscal risk declared in the previous week according to the existing data in the integrated customs computerized customs record system. The period for determining the average unit value of goods with high fiscal risk will be extended by one week until similar products are identified.

7. Details regarding the transport of goods with high fiscal risk representing Agricultural products:

• Transports of goods with high fiscal risk representing agricultural products purchased from agricultural producers on the basis of the sales card, as well as transports of goods with high fiscal risk carried out by agricultural producers natural persons from the place of holding to the place of sale, are not subject to the declaration in The RO e-Transport system.
• Transports of goods with high fiscal risk representing agricultural plant products that meet the conditions provided for in art. 3 paragraph (1)-(3) from Law no. 108/2014 regarding the road transport of agricultural and vegetable products on public roads, with subsequent amendments, are not subject to declaration in the RO e-Transport System.

8. Obligation to ensure the transfer of positioning data (GPS)

• The road transport operator is obliged to ensure the transfer of the current positioning data of the transport vehicle, which are the subject of the declaration, for the entire duration of the transport route of the goods which are the subject of monitoring through the RO e-Transport System.
• The road transport operator is obliged to equip the transport vehicles with telecommunications terminal devices that use positioning technologies and satellite data transmission referred to in art. 4 paragraph (1) lit. b1).
• The provisions of paragraph (2) does not apply if the positioning data of the transport vehicle is transferred by its devices.
• The road transport operator is obliged to provide the driver with the UIT code received according to the provisions of art. 8 paragraph (2).
• In the case of a transport of goods provided for in art. 1 paragraph (2) the driver of the transport vehicle has the obligation to turn on the positioning device before the start of the transport on the national territory, respectively to stop the positioning device only after delivering the goods to the declared delivery place on the national territory or after leaving the national territory.
• The driver of the transport vehicle is obliged to present, at the request of the competent bodies of the National Tax Administration Agency or of the Romanian Customs Authority, respectively at the request of the officers and police agents of the Romanian Police, the documents accompanying the transport of goods that are subject to monitoring through the RO e-Transport system together with the UIT code provided.

9. Contraventions:

The following acts constitute contraventions, if they are not committed under such conditions that, according to the criminal law, they are considered crimes:

• non-compliance with the provisions of art. 9 paragraph (2) and (3), art. 11 paragraph (2) and (4);
• the declaration in the RO e-Transport System of quantities different from those that are the object of the transport of goods;
• non-compliance with the provisions of art. 8 paragraph (11), (13) and (2), art. 11 paragraph (3) and art. 12;
• non-compliance by the driver of the transport vehicle with the provisions of art. 83 and art. 10 paragraph (1);
• non-compliance by the transport operator with the provisions of art. 82.
• (2) The contraventions provided for in paragraph (1) lit. a) and b) are sanctioned with a fine from 10,000 lei to 50,000 lei in the case of natural persons or with a fine from 20,000 lei to 100,000 lei in the case of legal persons, as well as confiscation of the value of the undeclared assets.
• (3) The contraventions provided for in paragraph (1) lit. c) and e) are sanctioned with a fine from 10,000 lei to 50,000 lei in the case of natural persons or with a fine from 20,000 lei to 100,000 lei in the case of legal persons.
• (4) The contraventions provided for in paragraph (1) lit. d) is sanctioned with a fine from 5,000 lei to 10,000 lei.