The electronic invoice is entered into the system – Newspaper Kommersant No. 220 (7421) dated 11/28/2022

The Ministry of Transport is fine-tuning the introduction of electronic document management in the transport industry and logistics, as well as during security checks of transported goods. Thus, the department has developed a draft regulation on the state information system (GIS) of electronic transportation documents (EPD). It allows you to issue them from September 1, 2022 in a “voluntary” mode, but from 2024, the use of a “digital” waybill may become mandatory. The authorities expect that the transition to electronic document management will make the market more transparent and reduce business costs.

The Ministry of Transport has developed a draft government decree on the approval of the regulation on the GIS EPD. It defines the goals and objectives of creating and operating principles of the system, the main functions, participants, the procedure for accessing information and information interaction of the system with the rest of the “digital government”. The GIS EPD itself allows you to generate transport documents in electronic form, exchange information with process participants and provide relevant information to state authorities. The system was launched on September 1, 2022, while it can be used to voluntarily generate electronic waybills, work orders and accompanying sheets. From March 1, 2023, an electronic charter agreement, an electronic waybill, an electronic order (application) will be added to them.

The regulation on the system states that it should ensure the transparency of the transport industry for state authorities, as well as the digitalization of the work of departments in the main areas of control and supervision activities. The system operator is the Ministry of Transport, its tasks include the creation, operation and development of the system, its uninterrupted operation, etc. Freight carriers can connect to the GIS EPD through an operator company, nine such organizations are included in the register.

The transfer of transportation documents into electronic form is provided for by the transport strategy until 2030, adopted by the White House at the end of 2021. It should be noted that the government announced the completion of the preparation of the regulatory framework for the launch of GIS in May of this year – then Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree on the rules for the exchange of EPD. Thus, the document prepared by the Ministry of Transport can de facto be considered a point adjustment of the processes of transition to electronic document management and automation of security checks of transported goods.

As noted in the Ministry of Transport on the eve of the launch of the GIS, the system will allow transport and logistics companies to significantly reduce their costs and speed up business processes. At a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on the development of electronic document management in business activities at the end of August, it was noted that the potential savings from the transition from paper waybills to “digital” ones for companies could amount to more than 16 billion rubles. The president of the ROSEU association, Yuri Malinin, says that the introduction of electronic document management is becoming more and more urgent. So, when switching from paper to electronic document management, enterprises receive economic benefits during the year, reducing paper costs by at least half. In the long term, this benefit becomes more noticeable at times.

At the first stage, EPDs are available for road transport as the most mass type of transport. Until 2024, it is planned to connect other types of transport to the system. This should ensure a “seamless” transition to electronic document management for multimodal transportation.

It should be noted that now the use of electronic documents is voluntary and does not cancel the use of paper ones, and from 2024 it may become mandatory. So, earlier Deputy Minister of Transport Dmitry Bakanov noted that in September 2022, a law came into force that allows you to issue a consignment note in electronic form. “In 2023, we let market participants work on the terms of the voluntary use of this system, and from 2024 we will begin to introduce an industry imperative,” he said.

The digitalization process has already been launched, but for many market participants, the transition to EPD is still ahead, one of the market participants notes in an interview with Kommersant. According to him, among the constraining factors are the need to adapt to changes, the unpreparedness for digitalization, as well as the need to adapt to the formats of transportation documents approved by the Federal Tax Service.

Venera Petrova