Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan traveled to Gyumri, where he first called at the State Revenue Committee’s Northern Foreign Economic Service Center to get acquainted with the ongoing construction activities. SRC Chairman Davit Ananyan reported that the Center’s primary function will be to provide customs clearance for imported vehicles.

Large-scale construction is underway on the 6 hectare site for customs clearance of cars from the 21.5 hectares of land allocated for the construction of a GC service center in Gyumri. It was reported that a section of the center which will focus on the functions of the automobile business will be put into operation in early November, 2019. The building will be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and innovative solutions that will provide citizens and businesses with high quality services.

The Gyumri car park will also provide one-stop-shop services. That is to say, not only customs clearance but also registration of vehicles and obtaining a state license will be carried out there. Given the expected volume of car imports, 800-1000 cars will be cleared daily here

The transfer of customs operations of cars imported to Armenia will be organized step by step. The process of customs clearance of some groups of cars started at the Northern Customs House in Gyumri as early as on October 14. This refers, in particular, to the customs clearance of light passenger cars of Group 8703 imported from Georgia and Japan to Armenia exclusively in the Commodity Nomenclature of External Economic Activity, with the exception of cars transported in containers. (However, if the cars cross the border into the Armenian-Iranian sector, the customs clearance is carried out at the South Customs House in Sisian).

The second stage, which starts on October 21, the Northern Customs Department of Gyumri will be designated as the customs authority of destination when filling in the TTIM type declaration for cars imported into the Republic of Armenia through the Armenian-Georgian border, provided they are not transported by truck or container, regardless of the country of export. The customs clearance of other means of transport will continue to be carried out in a decentralized manner at the customs-preferred department of the applicant.

A number of measures have been taken to improve the quality of services and organize work more effectively. As a result, 350-400 cars shall be serviced daily in the Northern Customs Department. The whole process of customs clearance is supposed to take 20 minutes.

The Northern Customs Department has new trained personnel. The process is organized through 3 divisions within the unit. In the meantime, the Sisian customs will continue to operate for vehicles entering the southern border.

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The founding of the Northern Foreign Economic Service Center in Gyumri stems from the SRC’s 2020-2024 Strategic Development and Administration Program. The goal is to create an EGP-operated Customer Service Center based on e-government systems and digital solutions to facilitate custom operations and increase efficiency, deliver more quality and up-to-date services.

On August 1, the Government approved the draft submitted by the State Revenue Committee to allocate 21.5 hectares of land for the construction of the center. Earlier the Prime Minister had instructed to submit a proposal to move the customs clearance function to Gyumri. In the meantime, the SRC has elaborated and, following approval, included a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan for the Committee to build a GSE service center in Gyumri, which will fully implement the vehicle customs clearance function.

The center is 158 km from Bagratashen customs checkpoint, 115 km from Gogavan and 58 km from Bavra. These are the three customs checkpoints in northern Armenia, where most of the imports and exports are carried out.

The SRC Strategic Development Program envisages building two service centers for external economic activity in Armenia within three years. The SIS in South and Gyumri in the Northern EAZ will further focus on all state-level external economic activity functions in a single window.