The portal employs the Preliminary Information technology, which has been successfully practiced since 2009. The technology meets all actual requirements of the Customs Code of the Customs Union and Russian Federation legislation.

The preliminary information system was developed by the World Customs Organization to ensure safe foreign economic activity, transparency of the customs system and efficient interaction of customs bodies with partakers in foreign economic activities.

Formulation of the Concept of the System of Preliminary Information of Customs Authorities in Russia in 2006 was caused by the need for institutionalization and uniformity of the customs clearance principles. From the date of the Concept approval the system has been successfully employed by partakers in foreign economic activity.

Now we observe steady growth of foreign trade turnover between member states of the Customs Union and other countries. Thereby organization of efficient, prompt and high standard customs clearance of cargo transit across the Customs Union boundaries has become a topical issue.

Delivery of Preliminary Information is mandatory in the event of cargo entry onto the customs territory of the Customs Union by road or rail.

Operation of the system of preliminary information delivery over the Internet is based on the following: a package of preliminary information (PI package) is formed on the basis of primary documentation supplied by the consignor and the consignee (the set of shipping documents), which contains data on goods and vehicles in the amount required and sufficient for the preparation of a transit declaration at the border.

This package is submitted electronically along a secure channel by a participant of foreign economic activity (consignor, consignee, customs broker or else) to the Customs Central Technical Information Management (CCTIM) to be checked for the data compliance with the format and supply-chain requirements and assignment of an on-line unique customs identification number to the package (CIN) in the form of a bar code.

In case of errors in the data or information insufficiency the PI sender will get a notification with a list of mistakes, which makes it possible to correct the preliminary information that will be used by a customs official for the preparation of a transit declaration at the border of the Customs Union, as well as the original documents in the course of preparation of the shipping document package – prior to the cargo shipping.

At the time of the shipment arrival at the border a customs officer scans the barcode requesting the Preliminary Information data from the CCTIM.

The data on the goods obtained online is used for the issuance of a transit declaration. An electronic notification carrying the transit declaration number and the cargo delivery date is sent to the customs service at the destination. It minimizes the time of the cargo customs clearance, prevents argumentation at the border and reduces the human factor impact.

Today preliminary information can be delivered by different ways; the most efficient and cost-effective one is the information delivery over electronic portals.

The OTVT portal provides each participant of foreign economic activity with an independent access to the on-line system irrespective of the time of day or user or cargo location. Each participant of the process can have access to formation and editing of shipping documents at all stages of the document processing. Based on the filed data on goods and vehicles it is possible to put them together in a required format and download on the customs portal of the European Union countries.

The Portal provides information support at all stages of the supply chain to all partakers in foreign economic activities.