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Finnish Customs is piloting customs information packages targeted at travellers

Publication date 26.9.2019 11.00
Press release

Customs is testing new digital services meant for travellers crossing Finland’s border. The website “matkalla.tulli.fi” contains tips and instructions on customs regulations for travellers. You can try out the Customs Information Service for Travellers at “matkalla.tulli.fi” and in Customs’ free-of-charge local area network at the Nuijamaa border crossing point.

The “matkalla.tulli.fi” website contains the most important questions about Finland’s customs regulations that concern travellers, as well as advance instructions for travellers departing from Finland. At the piloting stage, information is aimed at travellers crossing Finland’s eastern border via Nuijamaa. The information service is available for testing with smart devices until the end of November.

Customs has collected information for travellers arriving in Finland from Russia, and for travellers departing from Finland to Russia. Travellers arriving from Russia can check the service for, for example, restrictions concerning medicines. Instructions on tax-free purchases is available for Russian travellers departing from Finland.

- “We want our customers to be able to travel as smoothly as possible, and without any worries. We respond to their needs and offer information in a handy, digitalised way. We hope that the service meant for travellers at the border crossing point will result in increased awareness among non-EU travellers about regulations concerning travelling and importation of goods”, says senior customs officer Nadja Painokallio.

For travellers departing Finland, the service offers advance information on, for example, value and quantity limits concerning tax-exempt imports, as well as import regulations on medicines, alcohol and cigarettes. However, Finnish Customs does not provide information about the import regulations of other countries. Instead, travellers should check this information personally from their countries of destination.

- At the piloting stage, the service contains information in four languages; Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian. If needed, the language selection can be expanded to cover other languages as well, says Nadja Painokallio.

Easy to give feedback on the piloting service

Comments and development ideas from customers are collected through the Customs Information Service for Travellers for developing the service further, and for deciding whether the service will be used at other border crossing points as well. It is very easy to give feedback on the service, as the feedback form is available on the site itself.

- You can try out the service at the address “matkalla.tulli.fi”, where there is also a feedback section. In this way, we are analysing the interest of customers in the service, and are finding out how well the information packages meet the needs of travellers. Based on feedback and testing, we can offer targeted information to other border crossing points in the future, and possibly provide open information also through service channels of other operators, for example at airports and harbours, Ms Painokallio summarises.

Customs is actively developing customer-oriented digital services. The Customs Information Service for Travellers, now under piloting, is a continuation of the popular Customs Duty Calculator which was developed in cooperation with the University of Eastern Finland and introduced in summer 2018.

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