Will the Mercury system be adopted? Mercury system for retail

Started working on July 1, 2018 unified system Mercury certification, the use of which becomes mandatory for all business entities, logistics companies, manufacturers and sellers of products of plant and animal origin. In general, the implementation of this system allows Rosselkhoznadzor to monitor full cycle processing of raw materials subject to veterinary control from farm to the store shelf.

Thanks to Mercury, the country's government plans to reduce the level of low-quality products and counterfeit products on the market food products. The main provisions on this issue are regulated at the state level: for the FSIS "Mercury", Rosselkhoznadzor issued Law 243-FZ "On Veterinary Medicine", which reveals the key points.

243-FZ on Veterinary Medicine 2018: official text

In general, the law on veterinary control is valid in the territory Russian Federation quite a long time ago: adopted for execution on May 14, 1993. However, on July 13, 2015, the country's President Vladimir Putin signed a new Federal Law No. 243-FZ, which amended the current bill.

The reason for the publication of this law was the need to edit the existing rules in the field of veterinary control for certain categories of goods. In particular, it was in 2015 that the issue of the need to create a unified information field for tracking the circulation of veterinary documentation was first raised.

For these purposes, the Mercury accounting system was developed, thanks to which VSD is registered and.

The implementation of the unified supervisory system was postponed several times, and the necessary adjustments were made to the signed Federal Law No. 243-FZ. It should be noted that in order to introduce current changes that provide for all the nuances, a number of by-laws were adopted, without which the correct operation of Mercury would have been impossible . In particular, for business entities, processing and manufacturing enterprises finished products from raw materials of plant/animal origin, the Ministry agriculture Order No. 648 was issued and accepted for execution on December 18, 2015.

This by-law kills 3 birds with one stone:

1. Determines the list of regulated products for which veterinary accompanying documentation is drawn up;
2. Establishes a list of civil servants from veterinary medicine authorized to deal with registration of VSD;
3. Specifies which veterinary documentation must be completed starting January 1, 2018.

The totality of the law and by-laws leads entrepreneurs to the point that they will not be able to fully operate without registration of electronic VSD, which will be controlled authorized employees veterinary control. In particular, if production and processing enterprises do not switch to Mercury, raw materials will not be shipped to them. To do this, you need veterinary accompanying documentation for the movement of a consignment of goods, issued in electronic form. In addition, there will be problems with product suppliers and outlets retail sales, who are already working with FSIS "Mercury".

Although there is no direct instruction in the law signed by the President, for non-compliance established requirements Upon registration of the VSD, entrepreneurs will be held administratively liable.

Currently, violators may be subject to fines of up to 20,000 rubles and suspension of the enterprise’s activities for up to 3 months.

Considering that Mercury has only been operating for the second month, punitive sanctions have not yet been applied to violators, and they can continue to use the VSD in the previous paper version. However, a law on toughening penalties has already been submitted for consideration, and from January 1, 2019, the situation may change.

Changes in the bill from July 1, 2018 regarding FSIS "Mercury"

The registration of electronic VSD is affected by Article 4 of Federal Law No. 243-FZ, the provisions of which have been amended. In particular, situations are indicated here when filling out veterinary documentation on paper is allowed. These include:

• Natural and man-made disasters;
• Inability to connect to the Internet due to insurmountable circumstances, for example, due to the lack of an access point in a populated area;
• If the documents contain information classified as state secrets.

The list is exhaustive, and in other cases, registration of VSD in electronic form from July 1, 2018 is mandatory.

In addition, a rather important amendment was made that allows the execution of veterinary accompanying documentation in electronic form at the request of the owner until July 1, 2019. This applies to those groups of goods that, prior to the entry into force of the bill, were not subject to veterinary control, therefore, filling out the VSD was not required.

Download the current text of the law

You can download and print the law here:

To get acquainted with the changes and amendments made in more detail, you can use the resource http://www.consultant.ru, where all bills are posted in the latest edition and in an easy-to-read form.

According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture is engaged in the task of delaying the launch of the system until January 1, 2019. At the same time, he noted that the outcome of this work is still difficult to assess. “No one can yet say what will come of this in the end, due to the fact that according to the standard procedure it will not be possible to reschedule the deadline; there is too little time left. It is necessary to make changes to federal law. However, the State Duma and the government are working on this,” RNS quotes Vlasov as saying.

At the same time, official representative of Rosselkhoznadzor Yulia Melano said that there is no talk of postponing the launch of the system. “We are not talking about the likely postponement of the introduction of the mandatory Mercury certification system. On the contrary, they were talking about the fact that all kinds of transfer initiatives are almost unrealistic,” she said.

The full launch of the Mercury electronic veterinary certification system is planned for July 1, 2018. It will include all products of animal origin, not counting finished dairy products.

In June, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who now oversees retail trade, raised the issue of delaying the implementation of the Mercury electronic veterinary certification system. Deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor Nikolai Vlasov also spoke about the postponement. Although he noted that there is no certainty about this.

Meanwhile, since the launch of the EMU had already been postponed for six months, the authorities were confident that there would be no further postponements.

And so it happened. At the same time, according to Nikolai Vlasov, two days before the launch of electronic veterinary certification, only 12.5% ​​of market participants switched to working in Mercury. According to his forecast, in the near future the level of transition to EMU will be 40–60%.

Best prepared for the introduction of the system large enterprises, who had already worked with veterinary certification before Mercury. Medium-sized enterprises, according to available estimates, are 40% ready, and small businesses have the most difficulties - the majority of such enterprises are not ready for EMU.

Now on the website of Rosselkhoznadzor, on behalf of Nikolai Vlasov, an instruction has been written “On the procedure for action in emergency mode of Mercury or global problems from Internet providers."

The largest retail chains, X5, also reported problems with the implementation of the Mercury electronic veterinary certification (EVC) system for a number of suppliers. Retail Group, "Auchan", Metro. Although they themselves are ready to switch to new system. Thus, according to Auchan Retail Russia, about 50% of suppliers of regulated veterinary products are ready to work in the FSIS “Mercury”, but only 30% of those included in the EVSD (electronic veterinary accompanying documents) are correct.”

Market participants believe that most companies put everything off until the last minute, hoping for a postponement of the implementation of EMU.

Let us remind you that the Mercury system is designed to replace paper veterinary certificates and certificates with electronic ones. It is assumed that with the help of such a program it will be easy to track products “from field to counter”. This will protect consumers from low-quality and potentially dangerous products, clear the market of counterfeit goods, and deny access to unscrupulous manufacturers.

It was originally planned that Mercury would take into account all products of animal origin. However, dairy product producers began to seek to have it removed from the certification list. After all, the implementation of Mercury assumed that an electronic veterinary certificate for each batch of milk and cream should be reflected in the accompanying document.

Rosselkhoznadzor has been developing Mercury for almost 10 years. Previously, fines from 5 thousand to 50 thousand rubles were planned for primary violations of the new standards, and up to 200 thousand rubles for repeated violations. However, due to the unpreparedness of the market, the Ministry of Agriculture proposes to postpone the application of fines. Corresponding amendments to the law “On Veterinary Medicine” have been prepared, but have not yet been adopted by the State Duma. Market participants will not be fined for violations of EMU rules until approximately the end of 2018.

Mercury is a state information system for recording electronic veterinary certificates (eVSD). Since 2018, everyone involved in the circulation of goods of animal origin, including retail, is required to work there. Application forms for registration in Mercury and answers to the main questions about the system are on this page.

How to connect to Mercury?

To register in Mercury, fill out the application form and submit it to Rosselkhoznadzor:

The application can be submitted to Rosselkhoznadzor (or its territorial department) on paper or sent by email. In this case:

• Individual entrepreneurs must certify the application electronically with a simple electronic signature and send to the address [email protected].
• For LLCs, there are different rules: the application is signed with the electronic signature of the manager and sent to the address [email protected].

When the application is processed, you will receive an email with your login information to the Mercury system.

Who is required to connect and when?

According to the latest amendments to the Federal Law dated July 13, 2015 No. 243 “On Amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Veterinary Medicine”, from July 1, 2018, all VSD must be issued electronically through FSIS Mercury. Thus, before July 1, 2018, everyone whose activities are related to any stage of the circulation of goods of animal origin is required to connect to the system. This applies to all manufacturers and distributors of goods supervised by the State Veterinary Control: retail stores, wholesale warehouses, dairies and meat processing plants, poultry farms and seafood producers, farms, breeding farms, as well as catering, retail chains and logistics centers. State veterinarians serving the named enterprises must also register.

What products require electronic VSD registration?

In the Mercury system, it is necessary to take into account all goods subject to veterinary control, namely:

• all types of meat, offal and fats;
• sausages, prepared and canned meat products;
• fish of any kind, including canned fish (except for fish fillets and fish meat under heading 0304 of the Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity);
• pasta stuffed with meat, sausage, fish or seafood;
• crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic invertebrates;
• all types of dairy products;
• butter and other fats and oils made from milk, milk pastes;
• cottage cheese and cheeses, including processed ones;
• bird eggs;
• natural honey;
• inactive yeast;
• ready-made soups and broths and preparations for their preparation;
• ice cream, except for those made on a fruit and berry basis, fruit and edible ice.
• feed grain: hard and soft wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn;
• propolis, beeswax and waxes of other insects, spermaceti;
• feed;
• fertilizers of plant and animal origin;
• raw skins, hunting trophies, stuffed animals.

What should a retail store do in the system?

Within 1 business day from delivery and acceptance retail store must pay off the VSD for the transport shipment in the system. If you have accepted the goods partially, you must indicate the discrepancies when canceling. A refundable VSD will be issued automatically.

Important! If cargo has been delivered to you, but VSD has not been issued for it in the Mercury system, you cannot accept the goods.

What if we don't have internet? Is it possible to continue working with paper VSDs?

There are two options: either you simply have not yet connected to the Internet, or you work in an area where this is not possible.

• In the first case, you cannot use paper VSD. And since electronic certification is mandatory for you from July 1, 2018, you must establish and test your Internet connection before this date. If you do not want to connect, you can provide access to the system to your authorized representative, who will extinguish VSD and make refunds for you. The law does not establish requirements for such a representative: it can be the supplier (if it agrees) or a third-party company.
• In the second case - if you work in an area where there is no access to communications and therefore it is impossible to connect to the Internet - you can continue to work with paper VSD.

Be careful! The list of places where there is no Internet access point is approved by the constituent entities of the federation.

Is it possible to delay the launch of the Mercury system?

The launch of the Mercury system has already been postponed: from January 1, 2018, it was postponed to July 1, 2018. Before this day, registration of electronic VSD is not necessary, but counting on a further delay after July 1, 2018 is wrong and dangerous for retail: then, in the first days of July, those who did not have time to register will no longer be able to send and receive cargo.

There is still time before July 1, but we recommend not delaying the transition to electronic certification. It will take some time to process your application for registration in the Mercury system. And then you will need to master complex system, get used to working in it and, possibly, train employees. Therefore, it is important to register as soon as possible. Don’t put it off until the last day - fill it out and send it to Rosselkhoznadzor right now.

Will there be fines?

The fine for non-compliance with the requirements of the Federal Law dated July 13, 2015 No. 243 is provided for in Art. 10.8 Code of Administrative Offences. So, if a vehicle with cargo controlled by the State Veterinary Supervision Authority is stopped for inspection, the forwarder will have to provide information about the eVSD: QR codes or unique identifiers UUID (the main details electronic VSD), which can be checked in the public service of the Mercury system. In the absence of VSD, a fine will be imposed: from 3000 rubles. per driver or from 10,000 to 20,000 rubles. on legal entity, according to Art. 10.8 Code of Administrative Offences. For a legal entity, suspension of activities for up to 90 days may also be a measure of liability.

According to the order of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Mercury system will be used everywhere in 2019. The creation of a unified information base on goods of animal origin should not only reduce the time of circulation and issuance of relevant documents, but also help track the movement of goods within the country.

Has the commissioning of the "Mercury" of Rosselkhoznadzor been postponed to 2019?

More than 220 million electronic veterinary certificates were issued during the two months of operation of the Mercury system in Russia. The use of this system became mandatory from July 1 of this year for the preparation of veterinary accompanying documents (eVSD). Using this system, you can easily track the path of movement of cargo supervised by the State Veterinary Supervision. The list of regulated goods is specified in Order No. 251 of June 27, 2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. 97 groups include both live animals (poultry, horses and large cattle), as well as fertilizers, raw animal skins, circus animals, hunting trophies, stuffed animals and more. Thus, the Mercury system not only tracks the path of cargo movement across the country, but also creates a single information base in order to improve food and biological safety.

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was included in the list of subjects with the worst indicators. In the largest Russian region, from July 1, the transition to registration electronic documents took place only in four regions:

• Neryungrisky – 65.4% of business entities;
• Aldansk – 95.3%;
• Lensky - 99.4%;
• Mirninsky – 100%.

In total, the republic includes 34 municipal district.

Despite the fact that connection to the veterinary system is not progressing very actively, the transition has not been postponed to 2019, since the order has already entered into force.

Latest news about the system for individual entrepreneurs and other business entities

According to the latest news, in mid-August the veterinary information system was subject to a hacker attack. According to the supervising agency, the attack occurred at night, during the period of shipment and execution of electronic accompanying documents, which could have caused significant damage. However, Rosselkhoznadzor reported that the DDoS attack was successfully repelled and a server failure was avoided.

Information system not only provides a single database and helps track the movement of cargo, but also reduces the time and costs of preparing the necessary veterinary documentation, and transferring information to electronic view allows you to minimize the occurrence of possible errors during manual data entry. Its use is intended for veterinary departments, individual entrepreneurs and other business entities, temporary storage warehouses and others.

Another negative episode identified during the use of the system was the inability to return goods to the store. As it turned out, the buyer of agricultural products cannot cancel the purchase, since this action is not provided for in the Mercury system.

“We need to fix the system itself, we have already contacted the developers. They promised us that they would correct it, because today it is impossible to actually issue a refund,” said Vadim Smirnov, who holds the position of deputy head regional administration Rosselkhoznadzor according to Kaliningrad region.