A new Polish law regarding the road transport monitoring announced in the Polish Journal of Laws on 3rd April 2017 has now come in to effect.
The new law is aimed at the transport of sensitive goods that involve a high risk of tax evasion and will need to be reported to the Polish authorities. Products such as motor fuels, fuel additives, lubricating oils, defrosters based on ethyl alcohol, thinners and solvents, partially and completely denatured alcohol, tobacco and more will need to be registered by the shipper or receiver prior to transportation on Polish territory.
As a general rule, monitoring applies to shipments above 500 kg weight or 500 litre volume (except tobacco).
The \”e-Carriage\” service is one of the electronic services provided by the National Revenue Administration via the Electronic Services Portal of the Tax and Customs Services (PUESC). Under this system, it is the responsibility of the tax payer in Poland to register using the PUESC platform for exports from the UK to the territory of Poland or importations from Poland to the UK. Once registered the system will assign a SENT reference number (a unique reference number) and a KEY (password enabling third parties to make changes via the PUESC platform) which will be valid for ten days. For exports to Poland, the emphasis is then on the tax payer in Poland to pass both the SENT and KEY reference to the UK shipper who should then in turn, pass this onto the carrier.
For sensitive goods exporting from the UK and transporting through the territory of Poland to Eastern Europe, the responsibility will lie with the UK shipper to register on the PUESC system and notify the carrier before the collection of the cargo.
Once the carrier has received the SENT and KEY reference they will be required to complete further data in the PUESC system before dispatch, and ensure that the driver collecting the goods is in receipt of the SENT reference number.
Failure to register the shipments will result in fines from the Polish authorities.