South-Ossetian entrepreneurs state problems with cargoes at Russian border

Today, dozens of heavy-duty trucks with foodstuffs have been let from Russia to South Ossetia; they started accumulating from the day before at the Russian border. According to Murat Tskhovrebov, Chairman of the Customs Committee of South Ossetia, entrepreneurs face problems at the customs because of the absence of a duty-free trade agreement with Russia.

The trucks were detained on March 5 at the checkpoint "Nizhni Zaramag" because of customs clearing problems. Then, the problem was eliminated for the time being, as Mr Tskhovrebov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Trading carriers buy their goods at different markets and trade bases; they have no waybills and conformity certificates. The customs demands to documents all the hundreds of goods items separately. Naturally, it all causes problems; while broker's services cost a lot. We have no broker's company of our own. We need to somehow solve the problem, that is – by signing a duty-free trade agreement between South Ossetia and the Russian Federation," Mr Tskhovrebov has stated.

Entrepreneurs assert, in their turn, that in recent months the duties and fees collected from them on the border have grown essentially – from 2500 roubles up to 10-20 thousand roubles.