Deliberations on Customs Act start April 8
DELIBERATIONS by the joint select committee of Parliament appointed to draft the new Customs Act which will repeal and replace the 1941 Act should begin in earnest on April 8 but within that time individuals who missed the initial round of submissions are to be given a chance to make their voices heard.
The committee yesterday, during a procedural meeting, made the allowance following concerns raised from at least two Opposition committee members that some entities and individuals might have missed out on the opportunity to put their contributions in writing when the window was first opened.
In December last year, the committee agreed to give a wide cross section of stakeholders, who will be affected by the broad changes, until January 31, 2021 to raise lingering concerns that were not captured in the law.
Speaking yesterday, committee chair and Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said advertisements were placed in the newspapers inviting individuals and interested parties to make comments. He said 14 submissions were received. Those submissions, however, have not yet been explored by the committee which had taken a break to facilitate the budget debates then, and did not resume, as expected, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Clarke yesterday requested the consent of the committee members for those 14 submissions to still be considered. Among the entities that responded were Airports Authority of Jamaica, Shipping Association of Jamaica, Kingston Airports Limited, Custom Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica, Montego Bay Airport Association, as well as several individuals.
It is expected that the entities which made submissions will appear before the committee over the next three meetings planned for April 8, 15 and 29. Dr Clarke said it is the intention to hear from Shipping Association of Jamaica, Custom Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica, Airports Authority of Jamaica, as well representatives of the island’s two international airports.
In the meantime, Dr Clarke rebuffed a request from Opposition committee member Anthony Hylton to reach out to foreign carriers such as DHL and UPS.
“The ones you mentioned were written to and chose not to respond. We have a duty, and we have to balance interests between the thousands of Jamaicans who want this Act to be passed and are very impatient about it, and have made their voices heard on social media, signing petitions and so forth. We have to balance that interest. We would not be excluding opportunity, and opportunity has been given specifically to the international companies that you mentioned. What we have here are comments from a number of umbrella groups, we need to get on with the business of reform and repeal,” he said.
Commissioner of Customs Velma Ricketts Walker, commenting yesterday, said targeted consultations were done with the e-commerce and fast and express courier services.
According to the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons for the Bill, “A decision has been taken to repeal and replace the Customs Act in order to modernise customs practices and procedures so as to effectively and efficiently facilitate trade”. Such modernisation, it said, is expected to bring benefits for the trading community and the Jamaica Customs Agency by improving customs clearance and revenue collection processes and providing efficient service delivery to the public. In April 2017, Cabinet gave approval for the issuing of drafting instructions for the 260-clause Bill, which last saw minor amendments in 2014.
Those changes included provisions for the Automated System for Customs Data — an automated, integrated customs management system which allows customs declarations and all supporting documents to be submitted electronically. Prior to that, there were a series of amendments between 1960 to 2004.
The shipping community — one of Jamaica Customs Agency’s main stakeholders — has long expressed concern that the Bill may be skewed too much towards increasing revenue collection.
The shippers fear the amendments will lead to more of the same challenges they have struggled with, as the revised law intensifies the revenue collection processes and fees. They said the legislation leans too much towards “catching” people, along with other onerous provisions.