ENTERING ROMANIA FROM A NON-EU STATE
A) Declaration of goods
You are required to declare the goods you carry on you or in your personal baggage and to present them to the customs authority.
The declaration of goods can be made:
- In writing;
- Verbally;
- By choosing the green or "nothing to declare" lane at the customs offices where the two-colour control system is used or by going through a customs office that does not use the two-colour system without submitting a voluntary customs declaration.
You are required to submit a written declaration for the following goods:
a) weapons and ammunition, explosive, radioactive, nuclear materials, as well as strategic products listed in special laws;
b) drugs or psychotropic substances and precursors thereof, biological materials with mass contamination potential, medicines containing narcotic or psychotropic substances, essential chemicals, as well as toxic products and substances;
c) cash in an amount equal to or exceeding the equivalent of 10,000 euro/person.
ATTENTION!
Cultural, historical or artistic goods can be declared in writing when entering the country for the purpose of taking these goods out of the country without any other approval.
Cash payment instruments include:
(a) bearer negotiable instruments, including monetary instruments in bearer form, such as traveller’s checks, negotiable instruments (including checks, promissory notes and money orders) that are either in bearer form, endorsed without restriction, made out to a fictitious payee, or otherwise in such form that title thereto passes upon delivery and incomplete instruments (including checks, promissory notes and money orders) signed, but with the payee’s name omitted;
(b) currency (banknotes and coins in circulation, as a medium of exchange).
To submit a written customs declaration, ask the customs agents for declaration forms.
Failure to declare or the misdeclaration of goods is sanctioned as an offence leading to contravention or criminal liability, as applicable, with confiscation of undeclared goods.
B) Goods imported duty-free
Goods transported in the personal baggage of travellers coming from a non-EU country are admitted duty-free subject to the following conditions:
- the import is of an occasional nature;
- the goods are exclusively for the personal use of the travellers or their families or intended as presents.
ATTENTION!
The nature and quantity of such goods should not be such as might indicate that they are being imported for commercial reasons
The following goods are allowed to be imported free of customs duties, VAT and excise duties:
a) personal effects reasonably necessary for travel (e.g. clothing and footwear, toiletries, personal jewellery, still and motion picture cameras together with a reasonable quantity of film and accessories, portable video recorders together with a reasonable amount of tapes, portable musical instruments, portable radio receivers, portable television receivers, portable personal computers);
b) goods for sports purposes (e.g. skis and poles, skates, sledges, clothing, footwear and gloves, balls of any kind, rackets, clubs, nets, sticks and the like);
c) tobacco products:
- 40 cigarettes;
-100 cigarillos (cigars with a maximum weight of 3 grams each);
- 50 cigars;
- 250 grams of smoking tobacco.
The relief may be granted either for one of the categories of tobacco products referred to in letter c), or for a combination thereof provided that the total percentage of the individual allowed quantities does not exceed 100%.
d) alcoholic beverages:
- a total of 1 litre of alcohol and alcoholic beverages with an alcoholic concentration of distilled and spirit drinks with an alcoholic strength exceeding 22% volume or undenatured ethyl alcohol of an alcoholic strength exceeding 80% volume
- a total of 2 litres of alcohol and alcoholic beverages with an alcoholic strength of less than 22% vol.
The relief can be granted for either one of the categories of types of alcohol and alcoholic beverages referred to in letter d), or for a combination thereof provided that the total percentage of the individual allowed quantities does not exceed 100%.
- 4 litres of still wines and 16 litres of beer;
e) miscellaneous goods, other than those mentioned in letters a) - d), under the total value of 430 EURO for each passenger in the case of transport by air and sea and 300 EURO in the case of other vehicles.
f) the fuel contained in the standard tank of the motor vehicle and a quantity of fuel of up to 10 litres contained in a portable tank.
ATTENTON!
1) Passengers under the age of 17 are not granted any relief for tobacco products, alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
(2) Where the total value of two or more items per passenger exceeds the above values, reliefs are granted up to these amounts for items, which, if imported separately, would have been granted reliefs, provided that the total value of an individual item cannot be divided.
3) The repeated import, within a certain period of time, free of customs duties, of the goods from any category listed above under letters a) - g) is considered an import for commercial purposes and shall entail payment of customs duties and the fulfilment of legal formalities for the import of goods for commercial purposes (according to the Order of the President of National Agency of Fiscal Administration No. 3477/07.11.2013 defining the occasional nature of bringing into Romania goods in the personal baggage of travellers coming from a third country).
C) Goods imported with payment of customs duties
With the exception of tobacco products and alcoholic beverages listed in section B) above, travellers are allowed to import goods in their personal baggage with payment of customs duties, Value Added Tax (19%) and excise duties, as applicable.
The customs duties applicable to the importation of goods in the personal baggage are those laid down in the Common Customs Tariff on Imports into the European Union, adopted by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the Common Customs Tariff.
The customs value to which customs duties are applied is the actual price paid for the purchase of the goods.
Pursuant to Article 70 of Regulation (EU) no. 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the Customs Code of the Union, as subsequently amended:
„(1) The primary basis for the customs value of goods shall be the transaction value, that is the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the customs territory of the Union, adjusted, where necessary. [...]”
In order to determine the customs value pursuant to Article 70 of Regulation (EU) No. 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the price actually paid or payable for the imported goods shall be supplemented by elements provided in Article 71 of the same regulation (for example, the cost of transport and insurance of the imported goods; and loading and handling charges associated with the transport of the imported goods up to the place where goods are brought into the customs territory of the Union, royalties and license fees, etc. )
For the goods carried in passengers' personal baggage that are not of a commercial nature and whose overall value per passenger does not exceed EUR 700, a flat - rate customs duty of 2.5% shall apply.
ATTENTION!
1) Importing goods with the payment of customs duties for commercial purposes is prohibited.
2) The flat-rate customs duty does not apply to goods:
- for which the person concerned requests the application of own customs duties under the Common Customs Tariff of the European Union;
- for which the term "relief” is specified in the Common Customs Tariff of the European Union;
- for tobacco products and alcoholic beverages when they exceed the quantities allowed for admission with relief from customs duties.
D) Importing species of wild fauna and flora
Importing into Romania species of wild fauna and flora listed in the Council Regulation no. 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora shall be done upon availability of CITES certificates/permits issued by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
E) Goods infringing intellectual property rights
The introduction into the Union of goods infringing certain intellectual property rights or which by their nature suggest that they have been introduced into the Community for commercial purposes is prohibited. Goods infringing certain property rights include:
• counterfeit goods
• pirated goods
• goods infringing the rights granted by a patent or a supplementary protection certificate, geographical indication or plant variety rights.
F) Pets
Any pets taken across the border shall be identified either by a clear and legible tattoo or by an electronic identification system (transponder).
Whatever form of pet identification, it must contain details on the name and address of the pet owner.
The pets must have a passport issued by a veterinarian authorized by the competent authority certifying the validity of rabies vaccination or revaccination, as appropriate.
ATTENTION!
Pets can only be taken into Romania through the border crossing control points where sanitary and veterinary controls are available. For the list of these points, see the section "Customs clearance of goods" link "Products subject to veterinary and food safety control".
Legal basis:
- Council Regulation (EC) No. 1186/2009 of 16 November 2009 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty;
- Order of the President of National Agency of Fiscal Administration (ANAF) no. 3477/07.11.2013 defining the occasional nature of bringing into Romania goods in the personal baggage of travellers coming from a third country, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 686/08.11.2013.
Source: https://www.customs.ro/calatori/intrarea-in-romania-dintr-un-stat-necomunitar#casetaAsistenta
