Through a public notice on September 7, the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) opened a digital forum for discussion of ¨General Norm that establishes characteristics, procedures for the issuance and use of provisional plates and transfers of vehicles of engine and trailers¨, having to include a semi-trailer ¨frame¨ for registration and definitive plates, since they do not enter temporary, but to definitive regime for container transport.
To differentiate the terms, the Customs Convention on containers of the Customs Cooperation Council of 1972, today the World Customs Organization (WCO), a technical cooperation body to which Customs is a signatory, defines that road vehicles should be understood, not just motor vehicles , but also trailers and semi-trailers, chassis-trailers built for coupling to cargo vehicles.
What does the Kyoto Convention say?
The Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Regimes
Customs, which RD signed through congressional resolution 119-12, the annex
Specific J, chapter 3, refers to the Means of Transport: Road Vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, the combination of vehicles for commercial purposes in temporary admission, and definitive, subject to the terms of the DUA of arrival or departure.
Recommended Practice
In this sense, Recommended Practice number 3 of the aforementioned agreement indicates that, Road Vehicles are means of transport used for commercial purposes, and loaded or not, they should be admitted into customs territory with suspension of duties-taxes,
provided that said means of transport, admitted in temporary hospitalization,
are not used for transport in customs territory or secondary jurisdiction.
To be more precise, clarify so that the terms and differences between trailer and semi-trailer are not confused, the commercial page @ portatrailer. com. states that a trailer is a cargo vehicle without a motor, towed by a tractor unit, and a semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle, which is not self-propelled, which is directly coupled to the tractor truck, and on which the important part of the its mass.
The part of the truck where it is coupled is called the fifth wheel, a mechanism where the tractor head, the semi-trailer, and is known as the fifth wheel, because it goes
in the middle of the four wheels (two axles) of the tractor truck, old term, since tractor trucks had only four wheels, and the fifth was the coupling mechanism.
The other difference between trailer and semi-trailer is the registration.
While the license plate of a trailer is the same as that of the tractor, the license plate of the semi-trailer is independent of the tractor head of the cargo truck. The advantage of a semi-trailer to a trailer is that it can be coupled to any truck, while the trailer can only be towed by the truck with the same license plate.
Law 63-17. Mobility, Land Transport, Traffic and Road Safety, article 107.
Vehicle trailers and semi-trailers for the transport of loads must be
registered in the National Registry of Freight Transportation Vehicles, dependency
of the Intrant, which will establish weight and measure for the inscription, ¨with the exception of
the chassis that temporarily enter the country¨, with the issuance of a driver by the shipping company, which will indicate the date of entry, the vehicle’s license plate number and the name of the driver to whom it was assigned.
This period may not exceed 90 days.
Contrary to article 107 of the aforementioned law, and in observance of the regulations of best reference practices, chassis and trailers are definitively imported by shipping agencies or related companies, to provide container transport services in customs territory to consignees of the imported goods, so when entering the DR they must declare customs: nos. You. us. axles, year of manufacture, country
of origin, CIF value (Fob-Insurance-Freight), and the date of entry; Duties and taxes on the subject of tax reform in this wonderland, which should be the same for everyone.
Under the import regime, they are classified under heading 8716. 40.00 with a 14% tax, and
18% ITBIS, according to Law 146-2000 of the tariff, under the Harmonized System of
designation and codification, sixth amendment, version 2017, approved by the Organization
World Customs, and in observance of Customs Law 168-21, Cap. II, Sect. I, arts.
197 and 198, obligation of the carrier or its representative to declare, and consequences
provided by arts. 56 of civil and criminal responsibility, and 57 of his acts before the DGA.
In that tenor, article 189. Prohibited Acts, numerals: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, and 16,
Paragraphs I and II, establish sanctions of one to three minimum wages to carriers
of semi-trailers, or chassis that transport the containers without the registration, being observed in the streets and highways that transit with simulated city plates
and foreign states, since they do not enter the DR temporarily, but definitively, lapse of the legislator in the aforementioned article 107 of 63-17, which should be rectified.
It is noteworthy that the Shipping Agencies have the monopoly of renting chassis equipment, despite being the providers of land transport services, responsible
of the cargo and equipment with the current insurance policy, condition for access to ports, for possible losses, damages suffered by goods detailed in the DUA presented
Customs, an obligation assumed from receipt of the container, until delivery to the consignee, in accordance with art. 112 law 63-17, having to return equipment to the terminal.
To regularize the status of thousands of chassis (semi-trailers) circulating without license plates
and the respective plates, the DGII through another public notice dated 16-10-2o18 in
Observation of articles 159, 161, 189 of Law 63-17, granted six months to request registration in the Department of Motor Vehicles, being imperative of owners, among other requirements, to declare assigned chassis, brand, model, year of manufacture and color, as well as certification from the DGA, indicating whether or not the equipment was imported.
In conclusion, the Customs Administration must supervise duties and taxes of
imported equipment for commercial use in customs territory, and that Customs, in its role as facilitator of international trade, presiding over the CNFC, considers it pertinent that the carriers acquire their own chassis equipment, which for their assignment are not subject to shifts before the Shipping Agencies, since they are frequently exhausted, costs days of illegal arrears, transferred to consignees of the goods, also affecting the quality of the service for dispatch, according to the law in 24 hours.
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