The customs warehouse regime allows goods to be stored in specially authorized premises without their immediate release into economic circulation. Goods may be stored there for a long period of time, and payment of duties is deferred until they are removed from the warehouse and placed under another customs regime.
There are two main types of warehouses: public warehouses, which are available to any economic operator, and private warehouses, which are used exclusively by permit holders.
In turn, public warehouses are of three types: with joint responsibility between the permit holders and the regime; responsibility rests solely with the regime holder; managed directly by the Customs Service (so far there are no such warehouses in Moldova).
The authorization to establish a customs warehouse is issued exclusively electronically by the Central Office of the Customs Service through the SIA GEAP platform. The only exception is the stage of physical inspection of the premises.
Currently, there are 41 customs warehouses in operation: 36 in the central zone, 4 in the north and 1 in the south of the country. Of these, 5 are of the first type, 22 of the second type and 14 are private.
The advantages for entities storing goods in customs warehouses are quite numerous: deferral of payment of customs duties and VAT; flexibility in planning deliveries and sales; the possibility of processing goods under the internal processing or final destination regime; temporary export of goods with the consent of customs; optimization of logistics flows and increased competitiveness at the international level.
