Calls for facilities to monitor imported items

Concerns have been raised by law enforcement agencies (LEA) at the lack of government facilities to monitor imported items entering the country, leading to substantial income losses to the state in Customs Import Excise, Duty and Taxes.

The concern was raised and shared between Assistant Commissioner of Police, Peter Guinness and Assistant Commissioner Enforcement, Benjamin Sine, from the PNG Customs Services in Lae over the weekend.

They raised their concern after K20 million worth of cigarettes were confiscated and destroyed in Lae over the weekend simply because the importer was trying to evade paying Customs Import Excise, Duty and Taxes.

“Import taxes that they tried to evade stands at a massive K10.6 million. Instead of paying that much, they declared these items on Customs Entry as kitchenware and accessories,” Commissioner Sine said.

A total of 2,040 brus (tobacco) cigarettes were confiscated from 2 x 40-foot containers after it was planned to be dispatched back to the country of origin. The containers were searched, its contents seized and destroyed.

Sine said the containers supposed to discharge in Port Moresby in July after arriving from Philippines but before it was loaded onto the x-ray machine, the importer decided to return the containers back to the supplier.

Also, 218kg of Ephedrine substance was also destroyed with the cigarettes. It is a major ingredient for producing methamphetamine and another Four 40 footers containing cigarettes in Port Moresby to be disposed soon.

The Commissioner said since the ship has not completed its voyage to Solomon Islands, the containers were still on the ship. On the return leg it berthed in Lae. This is when Lae Police and Customs officials confiscated the containers.

Both said there should be proper equipment installed at the provincial sea ports so that they could monitor items coming into their shores in large containers. There is none (apart from Port Moresby) at the moment and it is difficult to manually go through each containers. It is proper to install x-rays to run those containers.

ACP Guinness, who is also the Divisional Commander of Northern region, which includes Morobe, Madang and Eastern Highlands said police assist the Customs

Officers on many occasions of counter band and illegal smuggling items. They could even do better if proper facilities are established.

Sine said the LEA networking is very much intact including Labour, Immigrations, National Airport Security, PNG Ports Corporations and PNGDF including stakeholders and there needs to be information and resource sharing amongst LEA.

Meanwhile, Sine presented Police Intelligence Officers (CID) with a laptop computer and a printer. It is part of their ongoing cooperation and networking to fight crime. The presentation was timely and much needed for Police.

 

Picture: Confiscated brus (tobacco) burnt by Lae Police and Customs officials.


Author: 
Press Release