26 February 2010
Vehicles lining up to cross border from Lithuania into Belarus
Many vehicles have lined up at the Pryvalka checkpoint, waiting to cross the border from Lithuania into Belarus.
A driver stuck in the line told BelaPAN by phone on Friday afternoon that he had been waiting for three hours to undergo customs formalities after completing the procedure within three minutes on the Lithuanian side.
When asked to comment, Alyaksandr Tsishchanka, spokesman for the Belarusian State Border Committee, said that the line was, perhaps, due to the enactment on February 25 of new rules governing the temporary importation of vehicles in the Belarusian-Russian Union State.
Under the rules, foreign registered vehicles entering Belarus or Russia temporarily shall undergo customs formalities only once, at the external border of the Union State.
“It is a new procedure for vehicles and it may extend customs formalities a bit,” Mr. Tsishchanka said.
He said that Belarusian customs officials were operating as usual and the line could also be due to the coming weekend.
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