Contraband confiscation

THE confiscation of contraband products without proper declaration and payments of applicable customs duties is a breach of customs laws of this country and the culprits have to be punished with appropriate penalties.
Whether it’s a finished product or a raw material for manufacturing, those items have to be declared and applicable duties paid.
Anyone for that matter who has been given the green light based on their proposal to manufacture the product domestically does not give any concession for those companies to use such permit or license as an excuse for importing finished products manufactured outside the customs territory of PNG.
That is totally wrong and those companies have to comply with importation of finished product requirements by declaring and paying the required duties.
Whether one brings in samples to test the market is still importation and duties have to be paid.
Local manufacturing means the company must have a nucleus farm supported by out growers to provide throughput (input) to the processing plant within a factory setting for manufacturing, packaging and distribution under value added tax (VAT) or goods and services (GST).
Any authorities conducting investigations or importing company per se have to be mindful of what domestic manufacturing constitute.
The location of where the bulk of the manufacturing value chain is taking place is very critical and countries enter into trade wars over that sector.

GS, Observer