The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic is an armed state security agency with a number of its own as well as shared competences. These include mainly customs and tax proceedings, but also a variety of control activities in the field of gambling, nature protection or transport safety. One of the competences is also the protection of intellectual property rights, which customs officers encounter on almost daily basis.
Customs and customs procedures
The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic assesses and collects customs duties on goods imported from non-EU countries. In customs procedures, it decides whether the goods are to be released into the EU customs territory, and if so, under which procedure.
Controls of toll and electronic vignettes
The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic checks whether tolls have been paid for the use of toll roads and motorways by vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and whether electronic vignettes have been paid for the use of motorways by cars and buses.
Controls of gambling
During the inspection, the customs authorities prove whether all legal obligations for the operation of casinos and gambling halls are fulfilled, in particular whether they are authorized by the Ministry of Finance and the relevant municipality. Not only the operation of casinos and gambling halls is checked, but also the offer of unauthorised games on the internet.
Controls focused on drug transport detection
The Czech Republic is committed to combating drugs and precursors trafficking (to keep it short and simple – precursors are chemicals used for drug production). The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic carries out airport as well as inland controls to check whether illegal transport of drugs and precursors takes place or not.
Administration of excise and energy taxes
Under the administration of excise taxes and energy taxes, we can imagine not only the collection of the aforementioned taxes, but also, for example, authorisation of tax warehouses, issuing of tobacco stickers, control of compliance with the conditions for the operation of tax warehouses, control of facilities for the production of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, supervision of transportation of goods from another EU member state that normally are subject to excise duty, but temporarily are exempt from the tax, etc. Excise duties include mineral oil tax, tax on raw tobacco, tax on tobacco products, tax on alcohol, tax on beer, tax on wine and intermediate products.
Protection of wild fauna and flora
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora sets out the conditions under which endangered wild species, as well as their products, may be handled. In some cases, trade is completely prohibited, in other cases trade can only be carried out under special permits. The Customs Administration of the Czech Republic then checks whether these conditions are met when crossing the state border.
