It is a type of regime in which the transit operations between the European Union and EFTA countries and our country are carried out within the framework of Common Transit Agreement, to which we have been a party since December 1, 2012.

It is a regime used for the transit operations that start and finish within the customs area of Turkey. In other words, regime is a national transit regime if the customs administrations for departure and arrival are within the customs territory of Turkey.

28 European Union countries, EFTA countries and Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein that are considered as EFTA countries, and Turkey.

It is a type of certificate based on the information regarding transit declaration and printed from the computerized transit system to escort good. List of items and transit escort certificate are integral to each other.

It is a type of certification based on the information on the transit declaration (if the declaration is inclusive of safety and security information) and printed from the computerized transit system to escort good. With this certification, there is no need for a summary declaration to be given at first entry into the European Union territories in transits from our country to the European countries, which are parties to Common Transit Agreement.

If the transit to a contracting party [to Common Transit Agreement] will be through an entry customs administration or a third party’s border, transit administration is defined as the exit administration from the contracting party. It should be noted here that the states comprising the European Union are considered to be a single contracting party. The transit administration for a shipment from Turkey to Germany will be the entry customs of Bulgaria unless that shipment will be out ouf the European Union territories. If it is to be transited from a third country which is not a party to the agreement, exit customs for the contracting party will also be the transit administration. For example, for a shipment from Turkey to Hungary through Bulgaria and Serbia, the transit administrations will be entry and exit customs of Bulgaria and entry customs of Hungary.

It is a type of guarantee granted for the taxes to be occurred regarding the goods transported in transit operations and for other shipments. It is used pursuant to permission as it is a type of simplification. This reduced guarantee is deducted from the system once the guarantee is registered by the customs administration, and can be used when the arrival is notified again by the customs administration.

T1 and T2 codes are the codes stating under which status the good is carried. Accordingly, T1 represents the transit declaration covering common transit regime for the good outside of the European Union while T2 is used for the transit declaration covering common transit regime for the good in the European Union. In short, T1 is used in case of the transport of the good outside of the EU and T2 is used in case of the transport of the good in the EU.

It is the regime code used in declarations issued within the framework of national transit regime, namely in transit processes involved in departure and arrival administrations of Customs Territory of Turkey.

LRN (Local Reference Number) is a registration number given automatically by the system, through which the transit declaration is prepared over the system by the main person in charge.MRN (Movement Reference Number) is a registration number given automatically by the system as a result of approval, registration and examination carried out by the departure administration regarding the transit declaration which has been granted a LRN.

Only one declaration is issued for a good loaded from one departure administration on a single transport vehicle to be sent to only one arrival administration. It is possible for a good with more than one destination to be loaded on a single transport vehicle. In such cases, different declarations for each arrival administration are required to be issued.

Although the arrival administration is the same, a different transit declaration is required to be issued in each departure administration because of the different departure administrations of good. In such a case, more than one declaration can be issued as the vehicle is loaded from more than one departure administration.

In case an export good with the same arrival administration and a good that is not in free movement are carried in the same transport vehicle, different declarations are required to be issued for each.

If a good under an export declaration is to be loaded to a single transport vehicle, shipping process can be done by only one transit declaration. However, if a good under single export declaration is to be transported by more than one vehicle, different declarations must be issued for each.

When filling the transit declaration, reference to export declaration should be given in the items section. If the same export declaration is to be transported by more than one vehicle, a separate transit declaration is required and reference to the export declaration should be given in each transit declaration separately. When referring, the answer to the question of “Is it in parts?” should be “Y” for yes and the answer for the last item should be “N” for no. Otherwise, export declaration will be considered as incomplete although transit declaration is submitted.

In such cases, it is possible to issue only one transit declaration. When filling the declaration, the recipient’s field and sender’s field on the main declaration should be left blank, however, these fields should be filled in for the list of items.

Transporter information is a field that is required to be filled only in the case of national transit processes. It is an optional field to be filled for common transit processes.

Guarantee reference number is a unique number allocated by the guarantee administration for each of the letters submitted. Guarantee is used referring to this number which is given in the guarantee section when preparing the declaration.

The amount of guarantee is specified by adding 20% on the total of taxes and other liabilities to be borne regarding good. Whether the good is in free movement or not or which country is the subject of trade is of no importance. Guarantee: no free. Guarantee is calculated taking into account the taxes and other liabilities to be borne regarding the good of a third country that is not in free movement.

The field of transit administration should only be filled in the case of transports made under the common transit regime, and there is no concept of transit administration in national transit processes.

For the transports to be carried out over Serbia, a transit process is started from the departure administration under common transit regime (T1 / T2 is opened).The relevant transit administrations are selected over the system through the transit declaration opened (For example, if it is to be transported over Bulgaria, entry customs of Bulgaria is selected; when it is transited from Bulgaria to Serbia, exit customs of Bulgaria and entry customs of Hungary after Serbia are selected).As Serbia is the third country transited, a transit process other than common transit regime shall be initiated. The common transit regime, which has already been initiated, shall be suspended within this transition process. The common transit process, which had been previously initiated, shall be resumed after transiting Serbia.

It is compulsory to annex the invoice and transport document to the transit declaration. Depending on the type of good and transport, certificate of authorization, transit document, permit and other documents requested by the customs administration can be added.

An LRN number is given by the system after NCTS declaration is filled by the main person in charge. This number is a temporary registration number. MRN number is created when that declaration is approved by the customs administration. Until this number is created; in other words, until the declaration is approved by the customs administration, the main person in charge can make amendments on the declaration.

Declarations issued via NCTS can be cancelled during the registration of the customs administration or following the release process.

The time should be allocated by the departure administration, taking into account the route, transport legislation in force, and other information to be provided by the main person in charge. When determining this time period; road and weather conditions, the status of the countries to be transited and in particular, and the distance to the arrival administrations should particularly be taken into account. For example, the transit duration for a vehicle transporting from Trabzon to Germany should not be set as the minimum duration (5 or 7 days), and sufficient time (for example, 8-12 days) should be allocated taking into account the distance.

As a general rule, shipping of the good must be carried out after sealing process. However, in accordance with the Common Transit Agreement, if the departure administration finds the information about the good given in the declaration or its definition provided in the supplementary documents sufficient, sealing process can be cancelled.

Along with the fact that there is no obligation such as the sealing of transit escort certification by the departure administration in customs regulation, transit escort certification is required to be stamped and signed by the customs officer and submitted in accordance with the transportation legislation.

Under normal circumstances, shipment by vehicle is carried out only through ‘border crossing notification’ to be submitted into the system by the transit administration. However, when deemed necessary, the good can be subject to examination by the authority serving as a transit administration.

In order for the border crossing notification to be made over the system, the relevant customs administration should be selected as a transit administration. If this is already done, the transit administration should be changed on the system (request for deviation-ATR request) and the relevant customs administration should be selected as transit administration on the system.

Arrival notification is the notification made to the departure administration on the system when the vehicle carrying transit good has reached the arrival administration within transit duration. The status of declaration is changed to (ARR_ADV) after the arrival notification is made.

It is the notification about the result of an examination made on the good covered under the transit declaration, the arrival of which has been notified, to the departure administration through the system. The status of declaration is changed to (DES_CON or DES_CON_NEG) once the control result is entered.

It is always possible to change the arrival administration. The change is made upon such request of the arrival administration sent to the departure administration. It is responded automatically by the system. Arrival processes are carried out following the response. It should be noted that irregularity fine will be imposed for arrival changes pursuant to the Article 241 of Customs Law.

In the NCTS application, undoing the status of declarations is possible only for the ones issued under national transit regime. In such cases, in order to undo the status, the relevant Regional Directorate of Customs and Trade should send a written notification to the Directorate General of Risk Management and Control under the Ministry of Customs and Trade. The status cannot be undone for a declaration issued under common transit regime.

Status must be controlled by the departure administration. Because the power to release the regime is designated to the departure administration. In case the declaration has been released, the status will definitely be seen as (DES-CON) at the arrival administration, and this status will be seen as (WRT-NOT) at the departure administration. However, in case any discrepancies have been reported by the arrival administration and those discrepancies have been resolved and the release has not been done by the departure administration, the status will be seen as (DES-CON) both at the arrival and departure administrations, and as the release will not have been done by the departure administration, the export declaration will not be granted the status of ‘closed’.

An export declaration related to the transit declaration is closed after the regime is released by the departure administration if the control results have been saved as positive or negative by the arrival administration.

In case of a container and weight difference, the arrival administration notifies the departure administration about the discrepancy. With respect to the discrepancy notified, the departure administration resolves the discrepancies and carries out the closing operations to ensure that the transit regime is released.

Under NCTS, other than container/weight differences, notification of discrepancies regarding licence plate, item number, information on signatures and additional documents can also be made. As regards to the information on recipient and sender, it is possible to notify discrepancies using the fields “other” and “explanations” on the system.

Under NCTS, notification of discrepancy regarding brands and numbers, container numbers, types and codes of good, regime types and sensitivity codes-amounts cannot be made.

It is possible to terminate an operation in a transit declaration issued using NCTS when the arrival administration notifies the arrival on the system and sends the control results. However, in some cases, transit regime may have been terminated on the system for any reason although the good under transit process has reached to the arrival administration. For such cases, a relevant document (proof) is required to be submitted to show that the transit procedure has been duly completed within the foreseen time period. Such documents are called alternative proof.

The following documents are the alternative proof for the termination of transit regime:
A photocopy of the transit escort certification or return copy,

• Transit refakat belgesinin veya iade nüshasının fotokopisi,
• A copy or photocopy of the customs certificate, which states that the good is subject to a process or usage approved by the customs and which defines the good,
• A photocopy of commercial documents -such as unloading records, bills of lading, invoice- defining the good.
• What needs to be taken into account here is that the above-mentioned copies or photocopies are required to be approved as ‘true copy of the original’ by the relevant authorities of the country if the good is subject to a process or usage approved by the customs of an another country.
• Eşyanın gümrükçe onaylanmış bir işlem veya kullanıma tabi tutulduğunu gösteren ve eşyayı belirleyen bir gümrük belgesinin bir nüshası veya fotokopisi,
• Eşyayı belirleyen boşaltma kayıtları, konşimento, fatura gibi ticari belgelerin fotokopisi.
Burada dikkat edilmesi gerek husus; eşyanın bir başka ülkede gümrükçe onaylanmış işlem veya kullanıma tabi tutulması durumunda, yukarıda belirtilen nüsha veya fotokopilerin, ilgili ülke yetkili makamları tarafından ‘’aslı gibidir’’ şeklinde onaylanmış olması gerekmektedir.

The status of the transit declaration is changed to (DES_CON) on the system by the arrival administration after the good under the declaration has been notified to have arrived at the arrival administration and the control results have been entered. Then the transit declaration is closed after it has been released by the departure administration and its status has been changed to (WRT_NOT) on the system.

If the message regarding ‘arrival information’ is not received within the time period that the good is required to be submitted to the arrival administration or the message regarding ‘control result’ is not received within six days after the arrival information message has been received; in order to obtain information required for the regime to be released or in case this is not possible, research procedure is initiated in order to:identify whether any customs debt is borne or not, Identify the debtor, Identify the authority in charge of the collection

There are four codes by which the arrival administration can respond to the transit declaration on which research procedure has been initiated. These are:(1) as a respond code: It is the respond given if the vehicle never arrives in the arrival administration. This code changes the status of declaration to (ENQ_NEG). (2) as a respond code: It is the respond used when the system creates duplicate records for the same declaration. This code changes the status of declaration to (ENQ_DUP). MRN regarding the duplicate records is required to be cancelled on the system by the departure administration. What needs to be taken into account here is that there are frequently experienced circumstances in which the transit administration for a transit good brought to our country from Europe initiates a new national transit process for some reason at border customs it is involved and sends it to the arrival administration. There is no need to open a new TR at the entry customs for a transit declaration opened in Europe. However, the declaration opened, even if it is opened by mistake, is responded by code (2) in case that declaration is being researched.(3) as a respond code: It is the respond given when the copy of confirmation is sent to the departure administration by the arrival administration. When sending this code, the status of declaration is changed to (ENQ_POZ). (4) as a respond code: It is the respond recommending to the departure administration that the collection should be done by the arrival administration if a good under transit procedure does not reach to the arrival administration. This code changes the status of declaration to (ENQ_NEG); however, unlike code (1), the arrival administration states that it will carry out the collection itself. This code is generally used when a vehicle under transit process is identified as not having arrived in the arrival administration even though it has entered into the customs area of the country (namely, a vehicle whose notification of border crossing has been made).

A declaration whose research procedure has been initiated is released by the departure administration changing the status of that declaration to (WRT-NOT), depending on the fact that an alternative proof is provided by the main person in charge through tax collection and cancellation of the declaration, or a copy of confirmation is sent by the arrival administration.