It serves for securing the safety measures for any goods entering/leaving the customs territory of the Community. It is required at entry of goods to the territory of the European Community, as well as at the exit of goods to a third country. The preliminary customs declaration (here and after PCD) on entry/exit is filed by the person who transports the goods to/from the customs territory of the Community or the person who assumes the responsibility for transport thereof to/from that territory, or any other person who may submit the given goods to the customs office. The PCD is filed with the customs office of entry in electronic form. In the event the computer application of the person filing the PCD is temporarily out of order or the computer system of the customs office of entry is out of order, a written PCD may be filed on the form, model of which is attached as Annex No. 45i of the Regulation (EEC) No. 2454/93 [nové okno] .
List of goods for which no PCD is required
- electric energy,
- any goods which enter in a pipeline,
- any letters, postcards, and press, even if recorded on electronic medium,
- any goods transported according to the regulations of the Universal Postal Convention,
- any goods in respect of which it is permitted to file the customs declaration by any other legal act,
- any goods which are in the passenger´s personal baggage,
- any goods in respect of which oral customs declaration is permitted,
- any goods included in the ATA and CPD carnets.
Details are set forth in Art. 181c of the Regulation (EEC) No. 2454/93 [nové okno]
Periods for filing PCD
In case of road transportation, the PCD on entry is filed with the customs office of entry/exit minimum one hour prior to arrival/departure to/from the customs office of entry/exit to/from the customs territory of the Community. In case of railway transportation, two hours prior to arrival to the customs office of the first entry on the customs territory of the Community.
If the preliminary customs declaration on entry/exit is filed in any way other than by applying the method of computer processing of data, the time period will be extended to four hours. However, this shall not apply if the preliminary customs declaration was filed in a written form because the computer system of the customs office of entry was temporarily out of order.