Fedespedi, the federation of Italian shipping companies, has strongly criticised the national customs reform, as articulated by Legislative Decree No. 141 of 2024 published in the "Official Gazette" on 4 October, because - explained Fedespedi - "the reform presents elements that imply a strong negative impact on activities of national imports and exports, and on efficiency and competitiveness of the country's logistics system".

The federation of freight forwarders has therefore made an appeal to the Customs Agency and the Ministry of the Economy, urging introduce "important requests for changes to the draft of decree, to be made before its publication in the "Official Gazette" Official"». Fedespedi recalled that his position thus aligns itself with what has already been mentioned to the attention of institutions and public opinion by of Confetra - Italian General Confederation of Transport and of Logistics.

With regard to the corrective measures that the federation of freight forwarders deems it necessary to introduce, Fedespedi has specified that, "with reference to the crime of smuggling, it is calls for: raising the threshold of the minimum level of evaded duties for configure the offence; introduce the institution of active correction to allow the correction of errors formal acts carried out in good faith; unequivocally enshrine the principle of ascertaining intent is in the norm". In addition Fedespedi specified that "it is considered essential review the classification of import VAT'.

"Without the corrective measures that we ask together with Confetra to introduce - said the president of Fedespedi, Alessandro Pitto - the reform risks generating a distortion of traffic in favour of other European countries with consequences also on the taxation of the Customs Agency, of which one third is supported by the collection of duties and VAT. From our estimates, if Italy lost even just 10% of traffic, the Tax Agency Customs would collect about 2.7 billion euros less per year".

"In particular - added the vice-president of Fedespedi with Customs delegation, Domenico de Crescenzo - the revision of the sanctioning scheme envisaged by the reform provides for the offence of "smuggling" even in the case of simple formal errors in customs procedures that companies international shipping services at the service of trade exposing operators to the real risk of having to engage in criminal litigation and suffer severe penalties including the confiscation of assets and means of transport. The crime is triggered when the mistake made generates a non-collection of duty and VAT by the state exceeding 10,000 euros: it is a very low threshold, which is reached easily in customs declarations'.

"We believe - explained Ciro Spinelli, vice president of Fedespedi with legal delegation - that this legislative novelty is contrary to the principle of proportionality of penalties provided for by the Customs Code of the European Union and is missing under the operational profile of realism, denying common sense and reasonableness, i.e. the principle of balance between the needs of control and facilitation of trade which are the strength of the of the European Union. Another critical element is the classification of import VAT as a border duty, contrary to the provisions of the EU Customs Code, the case law at EU and Supreme Court level. This item is problematic because equating VAT with duties contributes to the reaching the threshold of 10,000 euros which triggers the offence. The concrete risks that at present we can certainly assume the increase in litigation (also criminal) generated for facts that, in principle, are not attributable to the actions of freight forwarders as well as exposure to heavy penalties in application of Legislative Decree 231/2001. That said, a revision of the rule would be desirable carried out with serene reasonableness by the organs of the State and the Freight forwarders' representatives in order to lower the the norm in the industrial context in which we live every day and modify its punitive essence which today seems inadequate".