2. Roles and responsibilities The principal roles of the Customs Service include: · exercising customs control on the commercial international exchange · assessing and collecting customs duties and taxes in the part calculated at the State's border (VAT, excise) · fighting against smuggling activity and counteracting customs fraud.

3. While performing these roles, the Customs Service has been fulfilling a series of responsibilities, the most important of which, certainly apart from the fiscal function, include: protection of: · national industry - against a trade in goods which would affect adversely the conditions of competition in the country, · natural environment - against an entry of hazardous substances and micro-organisms, · world fauna and flora - against illegal predatory circulation of endangered species,

4. consumers - against the entry into the market of goods which are substandard with relation to Polish norms or whose period of use has expired, · society - against the entry of goods, items or appliances which are hazardous to life, health and safety of citizens or jeopardising the security of he country (e.g. weapons, paralysing gases etc.), · State - against the loss of cultural heritage (primarily against the exportation of the goods of cultural value), · authors, artists, industrial and commercial rights owners - against infringement of intellectual property rights, trademark, patent rights

5. Control in the area of: · State's customs policy instruments regulating the targets and volumes of international trade (e.g. monitoring the execution of customs quotas), · enforcement of national and international regulations relating to prohibitions and restrictions in the international trade, enforcement of regulations regarding permissible load of vehicles to ensure proper use of roads by carriers, enforcement of agreements concerning customs prevention with Poland being a party, · foreign currency control, including combating the so-called money laundering.

6. In order to discharge the above-described roles and responsibilities, Customs Service co-operates with: · other services in the country such as Police, Border Guard, General Customs Inspectorate, tax authorities, etc., · customs and investigation services from other countries, · commercial organisations, · research and scientific institutes, universities and similar organisations.

7. protection of citizens and the market against threats protection of financial interests of the UE and Poland facilitation of legal economic activities crime combating within the field of trade turnover

8. One of the most important elements that have the essential influence on the organization of the future Polish Customs Administration is informatization. The Polish Customs Administration has achieved recently a significant progress in computerization of customs administration and interconnectivity of the customs IT systems. These tools will also play a supporting role in the context of border controls. We treat this issue with the highest priority and the utmost care. The Polish Customs Administration is currently working on the following IT systems.

9. CELINA system is not connected with the EU IT systems. It supports and simplifies processing of customs declarations. The system operates in all Polish customs offices and branches. Celina Has been originally designed to serve as declaration entry system that would enable Traders to submit declarations in electronic form instead of paper and thus eliminate manual keying data to ZEFIR system.

10. This is the key system. The system has successfully passed in March 2003 through The first stage of implementation, in fact ahead of the Planned deadline. The system is now implemented and operational in 20 locations. All traders, who are technically prepared to do so, submit customs declarations electronically. On average this already refers today to more than 80-90% of declarations (depending on particular location).

11. The second stage of implementation currently under realization, will cover 94 locations altogether, including all customs offices, as well as branches and locations of key importance For customs operations after Polands accession to the European Union, Located mainly on our eastern and northern border. The third and final stage of the roll out will cover all remaining locations that will still operate after structural change implemented due to the accession. It is foreseen that full exploitation will start at the end of the year. It is also planned that there will be an interface between NCTS and CELINA system. According to the last decisions INTRASTAT statistical subsystem will be included in CELINA system.

12. Streamlining the process of declarations submitting by the business entities. Collecting possibly broad scope of information on declaration by electronic means and transferring the information to other systems. Speeding up declarations processing in customs units. Automating selection process of declarations for detailed control, based on dynamically defined rules (risk analysis profile).

13. The main functionality of the ICDTS system is located in the operational layer. At present this layer comprises 5 systems: Declaration Processing System Celina, Accounting and Duty Clearing System ZEFIR, Transit System –NCTS, EU Internal Trade StatisticsSystem –Intrastat, Tariff Quota Maintenanceand ManagementSystem –TQS.