Customs revenue exceeds expectations
Published:Thursday | November 4, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Customs revenue for the first six months of the 2010-2011 financial year has exceeded the department's projections by $3 billion, Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker has revealed.
Walker, who made the disclosure Tuesday at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Ninth Annual Customs Seminar at the Wyndham hotel in New Kingston, told participants that in October alone, the Customs Department hauled in nearly $2 billion above its projected target.
The customs czar attributed the increased collections to several measures that had been introduced to modernise the department's operations, such as the electronic manifest system used in tracking cargo shipments, as well as leadership adjustments.
"I haven't fired half the staff or anything like that," said Walker, noting it was the same customs officers that had effected the paradigm shift.
Walker also had high praise for the Port Authority of Jamaica regarding the calculation of storage cost for containers - tallying from the time when they were stripped instead of the date of the reported landing.
"We can move to a new paradigm where we strip the containers at night so that the cargo is there in the morning," he said.
Walker disclosed that while Customs would continue to maintain the flat rate charged on imported barrels, the collection body would also be beefing up security to prevent persons from circumventing duties.
He said some persons sought to bypass the system by importing commercial goods through this method, citing a court case in which an importer brought in 22 barrels of Clarks shoes using the names of 11 different persons.
Walker said more focus needed to be placed on border protection.
"If we have systems that can protect us from the drugs, the ammunition, the illicit drugs coming in, that will find the Clarks in a barrel. But if you just focus on the Clarks in a barrel, you won't necessarily find other things, because what you're focusing on is revenue," Walker said.
The Customs boss added that last week's signing of cooperative agreements with customs authorities from Latin American nations Panama, Guatemala and Belize would boost Jamaica's ability to ramp up its investigating capacity.
"Protecting us protects them. They have the same issues," Walker said.
'If we have systems that can protect us from the drugs, the ammunition, the illicit drugs coming in, that will find the Clarks in a barrel.'