Commissioner of Customs, Danville Walker, has said that the department will be going after persons who engage in the underinvoicing of goods, robbing the country of revenue to provide essential services and fund development projects.

Walker, addressing a meeting of the Rotary Club of Mandeville held recently at the Golf View Hotel in Manchester, said that such persons will not be able to get away under a restructured Customs Department.

"We have a number of persons, who want an unlevelled playing field. They are prepared to bribe officers and they are the same people who take the Government to task over the police not having cars and about the teachers being underpaid. The role of Customs is to collect those revenues to support those services that everyone wants, and we have to conform to the rules. We cannot assist with the undermining of the revenue base of the country for selfish good," he stated.

Track down persons

Walker declared that the customs officers "will not heed in their vigilance to track down persons who seek to undermine the country", noting that the department "is working hard to prevent underinvoicing of agricultural imports, which can threaten the survival of agriculture in Jamaica".

Avoid customs duties

Underinvoicing is the provision of an invoice that states the price of goods as less than is actually being paid. This is done to reduce or avoid customs duties and government taxes. The importer usually asks the exporter to enter an artificially low value on the commercial invoice and to supply a second bill for the difference between the commercial invoice value and the true transaction value.

In the meantime, Walker said that the restructuring programme, being undertaken at Customs, is to make it easier to do business in Jamaica.

"Customs is part of the supply chain of many businesses and it is important that there are no stumbling blocks to the growth of business in Jamaica," he said. "We are trying to make it easier to do business with us. We want to reach a point that when you put entries in with us, you can have them back the same day."

Source: http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20090330/news/news3.html