Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The call

So, in order to figure out how we need to properly import items to Armenia, I tried to arrange a call to AH from the Customs Committee. He is a person of authority at the Customs Committee and told our employees last time that if there is any issue he can help out.

I told AH that we are planning on importing a large quantity of computer equipment and asked him to help us arrange the paperwork in such a way so that there will be no problems when the equipment arrives.

His answer was in essence to get lost. He said he doesn't have time for this and that he would have to do this as a consultation outside of business hours.

I reminded him that last time it was he who told us that he can help us out with any question we had.

He said whether we had the following documents:

- Contract with exporting company (in the US)
- Invoices from exporting company
- Proof of payment (such as a bank wire)

I told him that we will have all this. But that last time, we also had this and we were told that we are missing documentation.

He said that times have changed and that they view these things more "liberally" now. To remind the reader, our last interaction with customs was in January 2008 or 3 months ago.

However, given that there is a new Customs Minister and that the newly elected president had recently blasted customs for being "corrupt", I'd like to assume that AH's words are truthful.

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