Regulation No. 54 of 1997 of the Central Bank regarding the rules of settlements in foreign currency based on offset of mutual claims between the Russian ship-owners engaged in fisheries and non-residents providing them with agency services

Search - 21 Results - fisheries file:///D/HTML/rus25111E.htm[16.01.2025 10:01:13] 1997 SovData DiaLine - SovLegisLine, February 24, 1997 Copyright 1997 RUSSICA Information Inc RusData Dialine - RusLegisLine February 24, 1997 SECTION: News TITLE: Rules Of Settlements In Foreign Currency Based On Offset Of Mutual Claims Between RF Ship Owners Engaged In Fisheries And Nonresidents Providing Them With Agency Services. RF Central Bank Statute No. 54 In conformity with Article 9 of the RF Currency Regulation and Currency Control Act, the RF Central Bank has worked out the present Statute on the Rules of Foreign-Currency Operations Based on Offset of Mutual Claims Between RF Ship Owners Engaged in Fisheries and Nonresidents Providing Them with Agency Services (hereinafter the "Statute"). I. General 1. Settlements in foreign currency based on offset of mutual claims shall be taken to mean settlements by book entry under which debtors' and creditors' mutual claims and liabilities are cleared off in equivalent sums, with payment made only to cover the difference, in the manner established by the present Statute. 2. The present Statute makes use of the following basic concepts: Ship Owners - resident legal persons and RF citizens registered as individual entrepreneurs engaged in fisheries on the continental shelf and in Russia's economic exclusion zone, and also outside the zone, including the zones of foreign states, on ships in the use or ownership of these persons. Agents - nonresidents providing agency services for RF ships in calls by these at foreign ports and in fisheries, on the basis of concluded contracts of agency. Agents shall bear liability in the form of fines, as provided for by the terms of the contract of agency. Fisheries - catch, acceptance, processing, transportation, and storage of fish and other aquatic animals and plants or products of the processing thereof, and also supply of fisheries ships with fuel, water, containers and other materials. Ship Owner's Bank - authorized bank (branch of authorized bank) keeping the Ship Owner's foreign-currency account on which settlements are to be made on the basis of offset of mutual claims, and under which the mutual-claims offset file is done. Mutual-claims offset file - a set of documents for settlements in foreign currency based on offset of mutual claims. The authorized bank is to keep a mutual-claims offset file for each contract of agency. Mutual-claims offset balance - the result of the correlation of payments in foreign currency under the contract of agency for the reporting period, as reflected in the mutual-claims offset file. 3. Settlements in foreign currency based on offset of mutual claims in accordance with Ship Owners' accounts opened with nonresident banks shall be allowed in the manner established by the RF Central Bank license for opening an account in foreign currency, with a view to the requirements of the present Statute. II. Rules of Settlements and Turnover of Documents 4. A mutual-claims offset file shall be kept for each contract of agency by the Ship Owner's Bank with which the Ship Owner has his current foreign-currency account. The Ship Owner shall file with the Ship Owner's Bank the following documents for keeping the mutual-claims offset file: copies of concluded contracts of agency and of all addenda thereto, and also copies of Agents' reports, copies of disbursement accounts and other financial documents testifying to the expenditures made and revenues Search - 21 Results - fisheries file:///D/HTML/rus25111E.htm[16.01.2025 10:01:13] received. The aforesaid documents must be translated into the Russian language and certified in the established manner. The mutual-claims offset file shall be closed upon completion of all the settlements connected with the meeting of liabilities (termination of settlements) under the contract of agency. The file shall be kept with the Ship Owner's Bank during five years from the time of the closure thereof. 5. The Ship Owner's expenditures specified in Annex No. 1 to the present Statute may be met out of the funds due to the Ship Owner from products realized in the conduct of fisheries, through payment by Agents of bills made out by nonresidents for services rendered to RF ships in foreign ports and in fisheries. 6. Where the Agent is the purchaser of fish products, agency services shall be rendered to RF ships out of a part of the foreign-currency revenues from the export of fish products due to the Ship Owner and left on the Agent's account. Where the Agent is a middleman in the sale of RF fish products, settlements for rendered agency services shall be effected through remittance to the Agent by the nonresident of the part of the foreign-currency revenues due to the Ship Owner from the export of fish products. 7. The schedule of the Ship Owner's operating expenditures the bills wherefor may be paid by the Agent out of the foreign-currency revenues from the export of RF fish products is given in Annex No. 1 to the present Statute. Other expenditures of Ship Owners (not specified in Annex No. 1) shall be made from their current foreign-currency accounts with authorized RF banks. 8. All bills for works performed in servicing RF ships in foreign ports must be confirmed in writing by the captains of the ships or by Agents, where confirmation by captains is impossible (according to bills and documents received by the Agent after the departure of the ship from the foreign port). The sum of the Agent's commission fee shall also be withheld by the Agent out of the foreign-currency revenues from the export of RF fish products, in conformity with concluded contract of agency. 9. Settlements in foreign currency based on offset of mutual claims of the Ship Owner with each of the Agents shall be made at least once a quarter, on the basis of Agents' reports. Reports must contain the following information: on the sums of foreign-currency revenues due to the Ship Owner for actually off-loaded fish products under each concluded contract; on the sums remitted to the Agent's account by nonresident purchaser of the Ship Owner's products; on the sums expended by the Agent in payment of bills for rendering services to RF ships in foreign ports, with annexation of the requisite documents (disbursement accounts and the like); extracts from the Agent's account on settlements based on offset of mutual claims with the ship owner, in conformity with the concluded contract of agency; on the sums actually remitted to the Ship Owner's account with the Ship Owner's Bank in the reporting period. Reports must be signed by the Agent and confirmed in writing by the Ship Owner. In the event of disagreement by the Ship Owner with the report submitted by the Agent, the Ship Owner must inform the Agent thereof within 30 days from the day of receiving the report, unless a different time period is set by the contract of agency. Reports shall be filed with the Ship Owner's Bank together with the documents specified in Clause 10 of the present Statute. III. Rules of Accounting and Reporting 10. The Ship Owner shall ensure the drawing up once in every quarter (not later than the 20th of the month following upon the reporting quarter) of the balance of the mutual-claims offset, as of the 1st of the month following upon the reporting quarter, and shall file the report with the Ship Owner's Bank in the statutory format. 11. In the event of a differential between the Ship Owner's expenditures, as specified in the present Statute, and the sums due to him from the export of fish products, as of the 1st of the month following upon the Search - 21 Results - fisheries file:///D/HTML/rus25111E.htm[16.01.2025 10:01:13] reporting period, the Ship Owner must ensure the performance of the following. Where in the reporting period the Ship Owner's expenditures specified in the present Statute are less than the sums due to him from the export of fish products (positive balance), the difference must be remitted into the RF to the Ship Owner's foreign-currency account on which the mutual-claims offset file is kept. In the event, mandatory sale on the domestic foreign-currency market must be effected in conformity with the rules established by effective RF legislation, including RF President's Edict No. 1551 of December 8, 1992, on Measures to Stabilize the Financial Condition of Enterprises and Organizations in the Fishing Industry, proceeding from the whole amount of foreign-currency revenues from the export of fish products due to the Ship Owner (including that not remitted to the Ship Owner's account as a result of mutual-claims offset under the present Statute). 12. Once in every quarter (not later than the 25th of the first month following upon the reporting quarter), the Ship Owner's Bank shall carry out a random check of the mutual-claims offsets performed by the Ship Owner, on the basis of filed documents. In the event of discovery by the Ship Owner's Bank of breaches of the established order in effecting mutual-claims offsets, information on offending Ship Owners must be addressed to the head office (national bank) of the RF Central Bank in the place of the Ship Owner's state registration. All the correspondence of the Ship Owner's Bank with the Ship Owner on matters of mutual-claims offset shall be entered in the file. 13. Once in every quarter (not later than the 1st of the second month following upon the reporting quarter), the Ship Owner's Bank shall file with the respective head offices and national banks of the RF Central Bank (in the place of the Bank's state registration) information on Ship Owners, in the statutory format. 14. The head offices and national banks of the RF Central Bank shall once a quarter (not later that the 5th of the second month of the quarter following upon the reporting quarter), file with the Department of Currency Regulation and Currency Control of the RF Central Bank information on effected settlements based on offset of mutual claims between Ship Owners and Agents, in the statutory format. The head offices and national banks of the RF Central Bank may address information on offending Ship Owners to the local department of the RF Foreign Economic Committee. IV. Liability for Breach of Requirements of Present Statute 15. Agents shall bear liability in conformity with the conditions of contracts of agency concluded with Ship Owners. 16. Ship Owners shall bear liability in the form of fines, in conformity with Clause 2 of Article 14 of the RF Currency Regulation and Currency Control Act, for lack of records of foreign-currency operations, for keeping records of foreign-currency operations in breach of the established order, and for non-submission or delayed submission to foreign-currency control agencies and agents of documents and information in conformity with Clause 2 of Article 13 of the aforesaid Act. 17. Where funds subject to remittance in conformity with Clause 11 of the present Statute (to cover the Ship Owner's positive balance) are not remitted to the foreign-currency account with the Ship Owner's Bank within the period of 30 days, beginning from the 1st of the month following upon the reporting quarter, in the absence of documents confirming the good reason for non-remittance (court decision or document on the commencement of proceedings in courts of law in cases of dispute connected with mutual-offset settlements), and also in the event of the Ship Owner using foreign-currency revenues received into his possession or disposal abroad for payment of expenditures not specified in Annex No. 1 to the present Statute, the Ship Owner shall bear liability in conformity with Clause 8 of RF President's Edict No. 629 of June 14, 1992, on Partial Alteration of Procedure Governing Mandatory Sale of Part of Foreign-Currency Earnings and Collection of Export Duties, in the form of a fine imposed by the RF State Tax Service in the amount of the entire concealed revenues in foreign currency or the ruble equivalent of the sum of the fine, at the RF Central Bank exchange rate. In the event, concealed revenues in foreign currency shall be taken to mean funds due for remittance in covering the Ship Owner's positive balance, but not remitted to the Ship Owner's Bank in the above-stated period, and/or the sum of revenues in foreign currency used without RF Central Bank permission for payment of the Ship Owner's expenditures not specified in Annex No. 1 to the present Statute, prior to its entry on account with the Ship Owner's Bank, irrespective of the reflection of the aforesaid funds in the Ship Owner's bookkeeping accounts. 18. Officials of the Ship Owner and of the Ship Owner's Bank shall bear liability, in conformity with effective Search - 21 Results - fisheries file:///D/HTML/rus25111E.htm[16.01.2025 10:01:13] legislation, for breaches of the requirements of the present Statute. Annex No. 1 Schedule of Ship Owner's Operating Expenditures Which May Be Met by Agent Out of Revenues for Fish Products Sold by Ship Owner 1. Payment of foreign currency in place of per diem allowance to members of ship's crews, and also for additional works which are not a part of their direct duties, in conformity with RF Central Bank Letter No. 198 of September 29, 1995. 2. Expenditures for purchase abroad of fuel, water, and other outlays on material and technical supplies. 3. Navigation and pilotage expenditures, and radio communication services. 4. Ship and port charges, and charges for canal passage. 5. Expenditures for payment of collective-catering food allowance for members of ship's crews. 6. Stevedore (loading and unloading) expenditures in foreign ports. 7. Expenditures in eliminating the effects of accidents and emergency repairs of ships. 8. Inter-voyage technical services and repair of ships in foreign ports, including presentation of ship for register class. 9. Expenditures on flights and travels abroad of ship's crews. 10. Payment for urgent medical services for members of ship's crews. 11. Payment of agent's remuneration. 12. Expenditures on mass cultural events.