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Customs to Crack Down on Under Invoicing
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Customs to Crack Down on Under Invoicing
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Thursday, February 03, 2000 - The newly appointed Comptroller of the Customs and Excise Department Mr. Claude Paul says government intends to get tough with importers who continue the illegal practice of under invoicing of goods. According to Mr. Paul under invoicing costs government millions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The tough stance he says comes after the granting of a six-month amnesty that ran from July to December of 1999. "There were a few importers who took advantage of the amnesty and we are now in the process of assessing that information. We now have information, reliable information on companies who may have been involved in under invoicing. We have information on the methods they have used to evade the duty in the past. In a sense, the amnesty has given us justification now to take a tough stance on persons whom we find attempting to evade the duty," Paul said. Beginning in 1998 the department began a major reform and modernization initiative with assistance from the British Government. A report on the activity highlighted seventy-two recommendations for improvement. To date the department boasts that more than sixty of those recommendations have been implemented. One of the main achievements involves the introduction of a Red and Green Check system at Hewanorra International Airport in the south, which has allowed for greater speed and efficiency in passenger clearance. "Since we have introduced the system we have been able to clear on a Sunday afternoon when you have in excess of one thousand passengers in about two hours. Bearing in mind that there may be other difficulties with the whole plant at Hewanorra - the time which it takes for example to receive the bags from the aircraft etc - we have been able to reduce the delays that passengers would have experienced with Customs at Hewanorra Airport by the introduction for the Red and Green System." The reform process is also yielding success with improvements to the Entry Processing Units in the north and south of the island, making them fully automated and the Anti Smuggling effort continues to report successes in drug seizures. |
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