The Romanian National Tax Administration and the Ministry of Finance, through Government Emergency Ordinance (“GEO”) no. 41/2022, implemented the electronic transport system (RO e-Transport) for monitoring the road transport of goods with high fiscal risk on the national territory. Further on, it was amended and supplemented by GEO 115/14.12.2023.
This article focuses on the recent updates of the legislation which made compulsory the RO e-Transport in respect of international transports of goods of any kind. They entered into force starting 1 January 2024, but the system of sanctions will apply as of 1 July 2024.
As a preliminary note, the application norms are expected to be published in order to clarify if the criteria regarding the maximum authorized mass of the means of transport, gross wight or total value of the consignment of goods will still be in place in respect of international transports as well, as they are currently stipulated in respect of goods with high fiscal risk, by Order no. 2545/6316/2022 “Procedure for using and operating the national system for monitoring the transport of goods with high fiscal risk RO e-Transport”.
1. What is RO e-Transport:
RO e-Transport is a digital platform aimed to monitor the road transport of goods across Romania and consequently to reduce tax evasion and prevent illegal trade. It is part of the digitalisation process envisaged by the fiscal authorities along with the E-Invoice and SAF-T.
In addition to the previous purpose of RO e-Transport system (monitoring the shipments of goods with high fiscal risk on the national territory), the system will also monitor the road transport of any kind of goods in the following cases:
– intra-community purchases; intra-community deliveries;
– imports, exports;
– intra-community transactions where goods are in transit in Romania; stocks available to the customer; non-transfers (i.e. goods temporary sent from an EU member state to another, such as tools, fixed assets, with the purposes of being used during the rendering of some services, which are subsequent returned in the country of expedition).
RO e-Transport system can be accessed through the virtual private space (“SPV”) based on the digital signature. It consists of a form/notification that companies which are liable to comply with the requirements of GEO 41/2022 should fill it in order to obtain a unique registration code (“ITU”) for each transport of goods.
The ITU generated through RO e-Transport will be provided to the transport operator and further on, the operator will pass it to the driver together with the documents that accompany the transport. Such documents are stipulated by GEO 27/2011, art. 3.
The data declared in RO e-Transport can, under certain conditions, be modified with the preservation of the original ITU code, but not later than the actual movement of the vehicle on public roads.
Fine for not providing the ITU code to the transport operator (we will present the fines only for legal entities): RON 20.000 to RON 100.000
Lastly, the user of the RO e-Transport system will confirm in SPV when the transport identified by a spotted ITU has reached the end of the route.
Hence, the reporting can be manually performed in the section RO e-Transport of SPV, resulting in an xml file. However, since this is merely impossible for companies with frequent transports and/or a large range of products, lot of IT&Tech companies are offering automized solutions in respect of RO e-Transport reporting. Basically, they gather data which are converted into a XML file (compliant with the structure provided by NAFA) the xml file is automatically sent to RO e-Transport platform (API integration) following the checks and validation of the structure and syntax and the semantic checks, the system validates the xml and returns the ITU code, or errors, in case some criteria are not met. For the ease of the reporting purpose, tech companies can also develop Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions for exchanging commercial and logistical documents with the rest of the business partners.
2. Information to be submitted in RO e-Transport system:
– The sender/ consignor and the recipient/beneficiary of the goods;
– The name, characteristics, quantities and value of the transported goods;
– The loading and unloading locations;
– Details on the means of transport used;
3. Who is liable to fill the information related to international transports in the RO e-Transport System?
– the recipient listed in the import customs declaration, or the sender listed in the export customs declaration, for goods that are subject of import or export transactions;
– the Romanian beneficiary, in case the transported goods are purchased from an EU country;
– the Romanian supplier, in case the transported goods are delivered in an EU country;
– the depositary for 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 of one or more consignments of goods, as well as for goods loaded after storage or after forming a new transport on the national territory from one or more shipments of goods.
Fine: RON 20.000 to RON 100.000 and the undeclared goods will be confiscated. Similar sanction applies for reporting different quantities in RO e-Transport than the actual ones
4. Deadlines and restrictions:
Transportation of goods must be declared in the RO e-Transport system within a maximum of 3 days before the vehicle arrives at the border crossing point upon entering Romania, or at the place of import, respectively when the vehicle is actually put into motion on the national territory, as the case may be, thus the ITU code to be available when the vehicle crosses the border.
It is valid for 5 calendar days starting from the stated transportation date, as it is defined by the law and reported in the system, or 15 days in case of intra-community acquisitions or intra-community transactions in transit on the Romanian territory. And it is forbidden to use it if expired.
Fine for expired ITU: RON 20.000 to RON 100.000 and the undeclared goods will be confiscated
It is forbidden to unload, on the territory of Romania, goods that are subject of intra-community transactions in transit, except for those that are subject of storage or of forming a new shipment from one or more consignments of goods.
Same sanction as above.
It is forbidden to modify the data recorded in the RO e-Transport system regarding a transport of goods, after the vehicle has arrived at the border crossing point upon entering Romania or at the place of import, respectively after it has actually been put into motion on public roads, as the case may be. Unless for the exception provided by article 8 (11) of GEO 41/2022, when such modification is mandatory and it relates to a consignment of goods which is transported with multiple means of transport.
Fine: RON 20.000 to RON 100.000
5. Obligations of the transport operator:
The transport operator can be either a third-party company engaged in the transport of freight with a commercial purpose or a supplier or beneficiary which performs a shipment with his own means of transport.
Obligations that rest with the transport operators:
(i) to have their vehicles fitted with the necessary tracking devices, such as telecommunication terminal devices that use positioning technologies and satellite data transmission. Such devices should be equipped with specific computer modules in respect of the management of the transport. They should be able to store the same data as the ones submitted in RO e-Transport system and to provide information on the positioning of the means of transport through the use of telecommunications terminal devices.
Computer modules will be made available free of charge to the transport operator by the National Centre for Financial Information in the Ministry of Finance. They will allow for real-time monitoring of the transport routes.
(ii) to ensure the transfer of the current positioning data of the vehicle during the transport route of the goods which are subject of monitoring through the RO e-Transport system;
(iii) to provide the driver with the ITU code received in relation to the transported goods.
Details on the above are expected to be provided in the application norms.
Fine: RON 20.000 to RON 100.000
6. Obligations of the driver:
(i) to switch on the positioning device before starting a transport on the national territory, respectively to switch it off only after the delivery at the destination stated in the RO e-Transport system or after leaving the national territory.
(ii) to present upon the request of the competent authorities the documents accompanying the transport of goods along with the ITU code.
Fine: RON 5.000 to RON 10.000
7. Procedure for using and operating RO e-Transport. Currently, such procedure is regulated by Order no. 2545/6316/2022 “Procedure for using and operating the national system for monitoring the transport of goods with high fiscal risk RO e-Transport”, including details on data modification, goods not received or partially received, return of goods, confirmation/denial of the transport, comments which should be added under certain conditions and so on.
Accountant Cristina Băluță, Tax Consultant
