PETROZAVODSK. July 10 (Interfax-AVN) - The implementation of a scheme of installing customs controls closer to the national border should shut the loopholes used by the semi-legal small businesses ("gray" business), said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"Effectively, before there was no due control over goods between the border and a customs post inside the country, which was exploited both by dishonest businessmen and part-time criminals. Now the loopholes of the gray business must be closed," Putin said at a meeting of a state border commission in Petrozavodsk on Friday.
The implementation of measures set out in the scheme will, in the future, to substantially reduce transport congestion in big Russian cities and to increase the country's economic safety, Putin said. Moreover, it will reduce costs for companies importing, as they will be able to complete all customs formalities at the border, he said.
"The federal cost of the implementation of the scheme can be reduced through the use of private-public partnership mechanism, and our goal here is to create a legislation that would ensure that such investment is attractive for business," Putin said.