Customs pass on tariff tasks to regional offices

 By ADAM MERA

PNG Customs will pass on the responsibility of tariff and trade exemptions to its regional offices, Commissioner Ray Paul says.

He said this was part of the modernisation programme aimed at efficiency and improving services provided by the department.

Exemptions excuse particular goods from duties and taxes. It applies to certain organisations irrespective of the goods they are importing. 

Paul said all exemptions would now be addressed to the respective assistant commissioner of each of the region and would be processed by senior tariff officers.

He said services regarding exemptions were lacking because the headquarters had a variety of functions to carry out.

He said the duration to process exemption applications was long as they were sent from the regional offices to the headquarters for processing.

“The number of exemptions coming in is huge as we get them from all regions and to go through each of them will be time consuming.”