FROM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT OF TAX ADMINISTRATION AND CUSTOMS, RIGA, LATVIA
The international scientific and practical conference
„Further Development of Tax Administration
and Customs in the Environment of Single Market
of European Communities” dedicated to the 15th anniversary
of the State Revenue Service of Latvia was
held on November 26, 2008. Besides Latvian specialists,
guests from Japan, Australia, Estonia, Netherlands,
Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and
Lithuania took part in the conference. Kunio Mikuriya,
Secretary General of the World Customs Organizations,
and Mats Sjorstrand, President of Intra-
European Organization of Tax Administration made
speeches of welcome. Atis Slakteris, Minister of
Finance of the Republic of Latvia,
described the economic situation of
Latvia, steps of the Government in
order to stabilize the economic situation.
Kunio Mikuriya discussed peculiarities
of the global financial
crisis, its influence upon international
trade and customs activities in
the report “Further Development of
Customs”. Access to trade finance
and drop in trade volume as a result
of the crisis. Customs will be affected
these ways: pressure on revenue
collection, diminishing investment
on border infrastructure and rise
of protectionist trend. The speaker
discussed visionary statement
by global Customs leaders “Customs
in the 21st Century” approved
by WCO Council, June 2008.
He stressed, that there is a need
for closer real-time collaboration
among Customs administrations
and between Customs and business
in facilitating legitimate trade and undertaking
customs controls. The new requirement is to create
in partnership between the various stakeholders of
the public and the private sectors, a global Customs
network in support of the international trading system.
Speaking about professional, knowledge-based
service culture, the speaker stressed, that future
orientation of Customs requires moving towards a
knowledge-based and customer-orientated model.
Staff competencies need to support timely customer-
focused processes and services that minimize the
administrative burden on legitimate trade. Training
and organizational culture should support high levels
of integrity, demonstrating consistency, transparency,
honesty and fairness. Effective change management
and leadership skills also need to be developed.
David Widdowson, Professor of University of
Canberra made the report “International Customs
Compliance Management: The need for consistency”.
The speaker stated, that while considerable progress
has been made by the international community
in relation to the establishment and agreement of
standards, there is a long way to go in ensuring that
individual economics have the necessary capacity to
translate the theory into practice. The exercise conducted
by WCO suggests that consistent global application
of existing and future conventions, agreements
and guidelines relating to border management
is unlikely in the absence of significant capacity building
support.
Hans – Michael Wolffgang, Professor of Law
University of Munster, Institute of Tax Law, delivered
the report “Customs Union in Europe: Quo
Vadis?”. The author revealed the current multi-functionality
of Customs within the Community, which
for instance, involves securing in Community and
national revenues, facilitating legitimate trade, protecting
consumers and environment. Speaking about
the future structure of customs administrations in
Europe, the speaker stated, that the need to create an
integrated European Customs Administration.
Sakari Alasalmi, Director, Head of customs unit
of Ministry of Finance of Finland made the report
“Customs – Potential Synergies in Taxation and/ or
Border Controls”. The speaker stated that with the
decrease in customs duties and the increase in control
tasks, customs have gradually transformed from
fiscal authorities in general organs controlling and
supervising foreign trade. Customs, earlier seen as
mainly serving the objectives of the internal market,
are nowadays more and more a tool for implementing
Community commercial policy, the emphasis
shifting on the external dimension. This development
means further harmonization of Customs procedures.
The speaker had a look into the development and
future prospects of Customs and tax administration
vis-à-vis each other.
Victor van Kommer, PhD, Director of the-
Knowledge Centre, International Bureau of Fiscal
Documentation, Amsterdam, made the report “Some
principles for professional Tax Administration”. The
speaker stated, that revolution in information technology
is one of the main drivers for organisations
to adopt another management style and transform
themselves from the traditional controlling and hierarchical
organization towards a role as facilitator
and motivator. The key issue for management will
be connecting people, systems and organisation. The
challenging task now for the executive managers is
to protect the privilege of collected data on the one
hand and to facilitate a professional culture where
sharing values and knowledge is the daily driver on
the other hand.
On the occasion of the conference, collected articles
„Further Development of Tax Administration
and Customs in the Environment of Single Market of
European Communities” (ISBN 978-9984-32-927-
70) were issued.
Assoc. Prof. Vladas Rimkus
Department of Custom Activity,
Faculty of Economics and Finance Management
Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania