Imbert to meet with couriers

Finance Minister Colm Imbert said he will be meeting next week with couriers on the controversial issue they are having with Customs. He was responding to an urgent question in the House on Friday from Mayaro MP Rushton Paray on the public outcry by the business sector regarding the inability of Customs and Excise Division to properly manage the “bonding” of all packages in the express logistics sector and whether the Finance Minister would reconsider the instruction until the Division was properly resourced to do so.

Imbert replied the question is based on a number of false premises. “There was no instruction by the Government to do this. I just want to make that crystal clear. The Government and the Minister of Finance did not instruct Customs to do anything with respect to what is known as the express release consignment.”

Imbert said he was in the process of getting all the facts but what apparently happened was back in 2010 then finance minister Winston Dookeran made a budget statement that goods consignments of under $20,000 would not require a formal customs entry and he also said this did not require an amendment to the Customs Act.

“It appears, based on preliminary research, that he was not correct. It does appear that it did require an amendment to the Customs Act but that amendment was never made.” He continued: “So what Customs has done is enforce the law.”

He said what is happening now is that express consignments, courier services, are now required to prepare on entry and that was where the problem has arisen. He added that he has asked the Customs and Excise Division to explain what has happened and what was done over the past ten years or so.

Imbert stressed the issue was being looked at both sides of the issue both from business and the possible leakage of revenue. He added that with no customs entry it was virtually impossible to do random checks.

Paray asked if Imbert was considering staying the decision until relevant changes can be made. Imbert said that the controversial issue was only brought to the floor on Thursday when a number of businesses held a press conference. He said before that there was no direct entreaty towards the Finance Minister though there appeared to be discussions at a lower level with business and customs.

He pointed out that prior to the 2011 budget, the threshold for small consignments that do not require formal entry was $1,000 but this was “strangely and mysteriously moved” to $20,000.

“Just so. There was no science to it. And what we have been told is that some firms, not all, would bring in multiple shipments of $19,000, ten, 20 shipments all valued $19,500 to avoid the customs entry procedure. And that is creating a problem. So there are real problems here. We need to be careful. I don’t intend to rush. I don’t intend to take any kind of hard position on this. I understand the difficulties that the business community is talking about. I understand. It is not something we can have a knee jerk reaction and just jump into it.” He said that he will gathering all the necessary information and next week he will have a meeting with the courier to see if there can be some amicable resolution.