Digital “passport” for every phone: SAB proposes declaring IMEI at the border

In Ukraine, they plan to strengthen control over the import of mobile phones. During customs clearance, entrepreneurs will be required to indicate the IMEI of each device, which will allow tracking its origin already at the stage of entry into the country.

Mandatory entry of mobile phone IMEI codes into customs declarations could provide the state budget with more than 5 billion UAH in additional revenues per year. This was reported by Oleksandr Tsivinskyi, director of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), in his Telegram channel.

IMEI is a unique identification number assigned to each mobile device. Previously, these data were not entered into declarations during customs processing of phones. As a result, illegally imported equipment could remain outside the system of state control.

After the new rules take effect, the origin of every declared phone can be checked already during its import through the Ukrainian border.

The relevant order of the Ministry of Finance has already been signed and undergone state registration with the Ministry of Justice.

The BES-proposed mechanism was preliminarily discussed by representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the State Customs Service, and the largest legitimate electronics retail networks.

Participants of the discussion held different views on certain technical aspects of the innovations. At the same time, they agreed that illegally imported equipment should not gain a competitive advantage over companies that officially operate in Ukraine and pay taxes.

The next stage should involve listing IMEI codes in fiscal receipts. According to Oleksandr Tsivinskyi, BES is already working on the algorithm to implement this mechanism together with the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service.

It is expected that the new system will help reduce the volume of shadow electronics imports, increase market transparency, and create fairer conditions for legitimate mobile device sellers.

Earlier, StopKor reported that at the Shehyni checkpoint, law enforcement officers found 487 units of undeclared equipment hidden in a vehicle. Among the seized were Apple devices, as well as Samsung and Google smartphones. The value of the batch was estimated at 17 million UAH, and in one of the cases the information was forwarded to the BES territorial directorate in Lviv region.