'Duty free' clarification
published: Sunday | May 4, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
WHEN I arrived in Montego Bay from Miami on April 20, 2003, my impression was that returning residents were allowed US$500 per person duty-free allowance. I was accompanied by my wife and we made a joint declaration for US$700. We were surprised when the Customs officer told us that we would have to pay duty on the additional US$200.
APPLIED
I questioned this and showed her the article from The Gleaner a few weeks ago. She explained that the duty-free allowance of US$500 applied to each declaration form. In other words, if a single individual was travelling, he or she was allowed $500 duty free. If a family of two, three or four were travelling together, they would be allowed $500 jointly.
This did not make any sense to me and I asked to speak to a supervisor who also confirmed what she was saying. I suggested that we fill out two forms and was told that that would be customs fraud as each family is supposed to fill out only one form. Finally I had to pay the duty.
