For the inspection of the RS vessel, customs demanded 1 million rubles in additional duties.
Granis LLC won a court dispute with Sakhalin Customs regarding the amount of duties on the return of the fishing vessel Irida after repairs in the port of Busan (South Korea). The Arbitration Court of the Sakhalin Region supported the fishing company; its decision was posted on the Electronic Justice portal.
The vessel Irida (built in 1987, home port Nevelsk) left the port of Slavyanka in September 2019 and was in the port of Busan until May 2020 for dry dock repairs. The work in the South Korean port was carried out under a contract with Kumjin Marine Engineering. It included dry dock repairs in the amount of a routine inspection, defect detection of the main and auxiliary engines, auxiliary mechanisms, hull work and electrical work. The cost of the repairs, as the customs service later calculated, was more than 9.5 million rubles.
The dock repairs were carried out under the technical supervision of specialists from the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, who then inspected the vessel. The cost of these services from the Register was $29,000. Customs considered it necessary to impose duties on this amount, while Granis insisted that RS services could not be attributed to expenses related to the repair of the vessel. According to the calculations of the customs department, in addition to the 2.4 million rubles of duties paid, the fishing company should have paid another 1.3 million rubles, including penalties in the amount of about 244 thousand rubles. However, the court concluded that the activity of classifying and inspecting vessels is carried out to confirm that the vessel’s condition complies with safety requirements and international treaties of the Russian Federation and is not in itself repair or other types of processing of vessels. “The provision of these services in itself did not affect the condition and cost of the vessel, and their implementation was not aimed at improving the characteristics of the vessel. The customs did not provide evidence indicating that the content of the specified services consists of any repair operations on the vessel that affect its condition and value. Thus, the court finds the conclusions of the customs authority on the existence of legal grounds for including the costs of RS services, as well as the services for drawing up a technical report, in the cost of vessel repair operations to be unlawful,” the arbitration decision says.
The court also noted that earlier, by a ruling from April 2024, Granis challenged similar actions by the customs regarding another of its vessels, the RS Svetly. The arbitration decision, which sided with the ship owner, was then supported by the appellate and cassation instances.
As reported by IAA PortNews, in January 2025, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued a decision on a similar dispute: between the Pacific Fishing Company (Tikhrybkom, Magadan Region) and the Sakhalin Customs. The company also challenged the collection of additional customs duties on two vessels returned to Russia after repairs in South Korea. Initially, the Sakhalin Region Arbitration Court sided with the company, but its decision was overturned by the Fifth Arbitration Appeal Court and the Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District. The Supreme Court, in turn, ruled in favor of Tikhrybkom.
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