THE CUSTOMS Department has given brokers an additional two weeks to adjust to its new user-fee measure which came into effect last Tuesday, May 1.
Under the new system, goods imported on the C78 form attract a $600 fee if it values less than US$1,000. Importers will be required to pay as much as $6,000 for goods valued US$100,000 or more. Previously, importers paid a $500 flat rate for any amount of goods they handled.
Last week, Thelma Downie, director of public relations at the Customs Department, confirmed that the Department had extended the deadline for the full implementation of the new user-fee system. She said the Department's computer system would be modified by then to accommodate the new fee system.
"It is not that money will not be collected, but entries that have already been passed and the duties paid, we will do the adjustment on them and collect the difference," she said, adding that brokers would continue using the old system to pay their user-fees.
According to Ministry Paper No. 13, the user-fee system is to yield $88 million. The increase user fees along with proposed amendments to the C78 form, is to yield a total of $151 million.
The new user-fee structure was announced by Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies during his 2001/2002 Budget presentation to Parliament last month. Hendricks Porter, president of the Customs Brokers Association of Jamaica (CBAJ), said he welcomed the two-week reprieve given customs brokers.
"They (Customs Department) were not given enough time to put their house in order and we give them credit for what they were able to put in place," he said.
He said that himself and other CBAJ members had met with customs officers last Monday to secure smooth implementation of the new user-fee system the following day, but there was chaos as the agreements reached at the meeting were not carried out because of an inadequate computer system.
Customs brokers reported that computers at the Customs Department were not modified to incorporate the new user-fees. They also complained that customs officers manually collected the new user-fees and that resulted in long delays.
