Lithuania - Belarus border crossing Benyakoni - Shalchininkai
Border crossing Benyakoni - Shalchininkai is located in the Grodno region, Voronovsky district, Benyakoni village. At this state border checkpoint there is a republican customs clearance point - PTO "Benyakoni-1" (operating hours around the clock). The specialization of PTO "Benyakoni-1" is customs operations related to the arrival into the customs territory of the Customs Union and the departure from such territory of goods transported in international road traffic.The Benyakoni-Shalchininkai checkpoint is located on the Belarusian side at the Benyakoni-Shalchininkai border crossing near the settlement of Benyakoni, Voronovo district, Grodno region, and is one of the main checkpoints of Belarus, and on the Lithuanian side, the Shalchininkai checkpoint has international status. Designed for travel by citizens of any country and stateless persons. The capacity of the Benyakoni checkpoint is up to 1000 cars, 200 trucks and 20 buses per day in both directions. The Shalchininkai checkpoint can handle up to 1,100 mixed vehicles. Border crossing length
Benyakoni - Shalchininkai from the barrier of the Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus at the entrance to the Benyakoni checkpoint to the barrier at the exit from the Shalchininkai checkpoint is 0.4 km. Located on the E-85 Minsk-Vilnius-Klaipeda road.
Destinations served:
Riga, Tallinn, Kaliningrad, Klaipeda, Minsk, Odessa. The length of the route through the Benyakoni - Shalchininkai checkpoint is Minsk - Klaipeda 553 km; Tallinn - Minsk 860 km; Odessa - Riga 1558 km.
The nearest checkpoints are:
- International checkpoint "Privalka" - 192 km R-89.
- International checkpoint "Kamenny Log" - 146 km R-145.
Queues at the border .
The length of the car queue before entering the Benyakoni checkpoint and leaving the Shalchininkai checkpoint on peak days can be up to 7 km, and the waiting time can be up to 20 hours. The average waiting time in line at the border with Lithuania is from 3 to 4 hours. The average border crossing time is 2 - 3 hours. Queues at the point are seasonal; travel to Belarus, as well as to Lithuania, depends on the day of the week and time of day. On holidays, the queue is maximum. At the border crossings of Belarus and Lithuania, travel may be difficult due to road repair work. During the summer holiday season and on the eve of major holidays, as well as on ordinary days, you can use the nearest checkpoints by first viewing the queues at the border online.
All checkpoints across the state border of the Republic of Belarus
At the Benyakoni checkpoint, violators are recognized even by their conversation and clothing
“Benyakoni” in the Voronovsky district is a busy checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border: in 12 hours more than a thousand trucks and cars cross it in both directions. Its employees monitor transport and commodity flows around the clock and in all weather conditions, and also easily identify violators.
A highway passes through Benyakoni, connecting the capital of Lithuania with large cities of western Belarus and leading beyond its borders. The checkpoint is also in demand among trucks transporting goods in transit - literally 80 kilometers from the border there is a large and high-speed highway Grodno-Minsk, which leads to the east of the country. In other words, the traffic here is dynamic. First of all, I meet the acting head of the customs post, Yuri Churilo. He has been in customs for almost 20 years, so he knows all the features of the service, down to the details:
— People often try to import cars with altered VIN numbers through our checkpoint; we are one of the leaders of the Grodno regional customs in terms of the number of such violations detected,
- says Yuri Viktorovich.
— Another interesting point: “Benyakoni” is especially popular among flower product carriers.
Over the entire last year, about one and a half thousand violations were recorded during the movement of goods across the border at the checkpoint. The last interesting case was in November. Several Ukrainians then came to Benyakoni. They chose the green channel to pass through and thereby confirmed that they did not have things subject to declaration on board the car or among their property. But during the search, more than 70 medals and badges, 50 raw amber stones and a collection of coins from the early 20th century were found in personal belongings. All this has been confiscated, and violators can receive a hefty fine.
I begin my acquaintance with the checkpoint with an in-depth inspection box: in two huge equipped hangars here, cars that have aroused suspicion among customs officers are carefully checked. For this purpose, there are several lifting mechanisms and other auxiliary transport equipment. The room is equipped with a thermostat in case you need to lower the temperature and check perishable goods.
We examine the truck. 100 thousand roses from Slovakia. Alexey (name changed) is nervous and complains that the control is too long. He points at his watch several times. I’ve been standing, he says, for more than an hour, but I have to get to Russia as quickly as possible. After some time, the reason for the driver’s behavior becomes clear: the actual number of roses is much greater than what is indicated in the declaration. And this is a serious violation of the rules.
This means that the customs officer who sent the truck for inspection was right. I wonder what exactly caused his suspicions?
“All employees,
” explains Yuri Churilo, “
use a risk management system when monitoring transport and transported goods.
This is a whole technique for analyzing factors that may become a reason for an in-depth inspection. I won’t tell you exactly how it works, but I will add: every customs officer pays attention to the little things, right down to how you talk to him and how you dress. In order to speed up the control process, the vehicle can be “driven” through the inspection and inspection complex. This is a mobile x-ray on wheels. In a few minutes of operation, he will completely study the contents of the entire machine and display an image on the monitor that can be passed through several filters. For clarity, they show me a recent photograph of a truck that was transporting goods on special pallets. Then it turned out that the number of pallets was less than declared, and the empty space was occupied by an undeclared spare part. An experienced customs officer, says Yuri Viktorovich, is able to discern any little detail in such images.
What if the driver refuses an in-depth search and check using an inspection complex? Yuri Churilo explains: in such situations, a tow truck is called, which forcibly tows the vehicle. After control, the motorist must pay for this transport service in any case. And in addition, he may receive a fine for disobedience and violation of the regime at the checkpoint.
“The majority of people who disagree, when we explain this algorithm to them, still change their decision and go for inspection. Therefore, such situations are rare.
What happens if you bring more than 3 liters of strong alcohol and beer into Belarus and do not declare them?
— Receive a fine for failure to declare goods. The customs officer will offer to pay a duty for the extra liters, and if they refuse, they will prohibit them from being imported into the country.
That is, you will have to go to the territory adjacent to the customs point, get rid of the extra liters and go through the registration procedures again. And if you try to import more than 5 liters of alcohol, then in addition to the fine for failure to declare goods, the penalty for illegal movement of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products will also be added. Moreover, this administrative article provides for the confiscation of illegally imported property.
Another popular issue that previously led to numerous disputes is the transportation of meat and fish. Everyone here must follow strict rules.
Individuals, they explain to me, do not have the right to import raw meat and fish into the country. The only relaxation applies to finished products of animal origin in original packaging weighing up to 5 kilograms - and provided that the country of origin of the product and the country of export are free from epizootic conditions. Employees of the Department of Veterinary and Food Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food who are on duty at the customs post are responsible for compliance with these rules. In any case, this cannot be done through Benyakoni: Lithuania is on the list of potentially dangerous countries due to registered African swine fever.
This ban, by the way, applies to meat and fish on sandwiches and other food taken on the road. To ensure that as few conflicts as possible arise on this basis, an experiment is being carried out in “Benyakony” (and not only): containers were installed on the territory of the point so that people could throw out food there themselves, which cannot be transported across the border. Previously, it had to be taken to a neighboring territory.
WE GO to the hall of customs control of personal property of bus passengers. There is an x-ray similar to the inspection and inspection complex here. All personal belongings of people must pass through this device, which is capable of identifying not only metal and wooden objects, but also bulk liquids and empty spaces in a bag or backpack. Even a stick of sausage and a pack of cigarettes will show.
Passengers at this time pass through a metal detector frame, which is configured to signal the smallest objects, such as keys and coins. To speed up the process, a special display is displayed at the top of this “frame”: it allows you to determine exactly where the metal object lies. The system works quickly: for example, for 20 people from the Shalchininkai - Voronovo regular bus it took no more than 20 minutes.
During the control I manage to meet the passenger of this bus, Galina Kveten. A village woman lives in Benyakony (an agricultural town near the checkpoint) and regularly travels to Lithuania to visit her children:
— Over the years that I have been traveling through Benyakoni, no questions have ever arisen. Customs officers try to work quickly and are always friendly and polite. I personally don't see anything wrong with thorough searches. This is all for the sake of the country's security.
The position of a village woman, believes I. O. Head of the customs post Yuri Churilo, correct. The control that is carried out at checkpoints is a complex service of customs officers to protect the security and interests of the country, and not some kind of whim.
TO THE POINT
In 2021, about 5 million units of transport passed through the checkpoints of the Grodno regional customs, 3 million of which were cars and 1.2 million were trucks. Trade flow in the region increased by 10 percent: more than 34 million tons of goods were moved. About 12 thousand administrative offenses were stopped, the total amount of illegally transported goods and vehicles was 22 million rubles.
83 criminal cases have been initiated regarding the evasion of customs duties on a large scale and the movement of drugs and psychotropics across the border.
In total, over the past year, the Grodno regional customs brought about 410 million rubles to the state budget.
Photo by the author.
Checkpoint Benyakoni - Shalchininkai border customs Belarus - Lithuania.
The border crossing Benyakoni - Shalchininkai is located in the Grodno region, Voronovo district, Benyakoni village.
At this state border checkpoint there is a republican customs clearance point - PTO "Benyakoni-1" (operating hours around the clock). The specialization of PTO "Benyakoni-1" is customs operations related to the arrival into the customs territory of the Customs Union and the departure from such territory of goods transported in international road traffic. The Benyakoni-Shalchininkai checkpoint is located on the Belarusian side at the Benyakoni-Shalchininkai border crossing near the settlement of Benyakoni, Voronovo district, Grodno region, and is one of the main checkpoints of Belarus, and on the Lithuanian side, the Shalchininkai checkpoint has international status. Designed for travel by citizens of any country and stateless persons. The capacity of the Benyakoni checkpoint is up to 1000 cars, 200 trucks and 20 buses per day in both directions. The Shalchininkai checkpoint can handle up to 1,100 mixed vehicles. Border crossing length
Benyakoni - Shalchininkai from the barrier of the Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus at the entrance to the Benyakoni checkpoint to the barrier at the exit from the Shalchininkai checkpoint is 0.4 km. Located on the E-85 Minsk-Vilnius-Klaipeda road.
The checkpoint Benyakoni - Shalchininkai is designed to carry out the following types of control:
- border,
- customs,
- automotive,
- sanitary quarantine,
- phytosanitary,
- veterinary.
Destinations served:
Riga, Tallinn, Kaliningrad, Klaipeda, Minsk, Odessa. The length of the route through the Benyakoni - Shalchininkai checkpoint is Minsk - Klaipeda 553 km; Tallinn - Minsk 860 km; Odessa - Riga 1558 km.
The nearest checkpoints are:
- International checkpoint "Privalka" - 192 km R-89.
- International checkpoint "Kamenny Log" - 146 km R-145.
Queues at the border .
The length of the car queue before entering the Benyakoni checkpoint and leaving the Shalchininkai checkpoint on peak days can be up to 7 km, and the waiting time can be up to 20 hours. The average waiting time in line at the border with Lithuania is from 3 to 4 hours. The average border crossing time is 2 - 3 hours. Queues at the point are seasonal; travel to Belarus, as well as to Lithuania, depends on the day of the week and time of day. On holidays, the queue is maximum. At the border crossings of Belarus and Lithuania, travel may be difficult due to road repair work. During the summer holiday season and on the eve of major holidays, as well as on ordinary days, you can use the nearest checkpoints by first viewing the queues at the border online.
All checkpoints across the state border of the Republic of Belarus
Location of the Benyakoni-Salcininkai border crossing on the map:
View Benyakoni - Shalcininkai border customs on a larger map
