The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE government has introduced an array of new levies on imports which deputy FNM leader Loretta Butler-Turner said caused “total mayhem” with customs forms this week, as many people were unaware of the new tariffs.

The new environmental levies took effect on Monday on items raging from refrigerators to cell phones, to computers.

However, she said, the new rates were not detailed in the recent 2013/2014 budget and the government has only recently made them public.

“I think that even though the legislation is there for these things to happen, it has not been articulated and it’s a slap in the face to all Bahamians who are now importing goods,” she said.

“This was not shared in advance, neither was it given to us during the budget communication.”

The Long Island MP said the levies are “very slowly” being disseminated to the business community and are “hindering the importation of goods.”

And, she said, “there seems to be total mayhem with regards to what is happening in the submission of customs forms so that goods can be cleared from the Department of Customs.”

Also, businesses who had submitted goods for clearance on Friday had items “sent back” to them in order to comply with the new rates.

“All of the submissions that would have been made in terms of customs clearance, last Friday - which was before July 1, had been sent back to those business houses for them to resubmit so they could fall in line with the new tariffs that the government has implemented,” Mrs Butler-Turner said.

“This in effect shows that a lack of planing and a lack of accountability and a lack of sharing with the business community, exactly what the government is expecting to do.

“This is very difficult for the business environment to not be able to know what their duties or tariffs are when they present their customs papers.”

She also said new customs management regulations which outline attendance fees for customs officers, attendance fees for means of transport, and fees for pleasure vessels, were also not revealed until this week.

One of those new fees is for any commercial airline with a seating capacity not exceeding 30 seats to pay $50 per hour for the attendance of a customs officer between 5.01pm and 8.59am, Sunday through Saturday.

For a commercial airline exceeding 30 seats, that rate is $100 per hour; and for a commercial airline exceeding 70 seats, that rate is $200 per hour.

Another fee calls for any pleasure vessel which carries more than three passengers to pay $20 for every additional passenger above the age of six, who is not a resident.

“In all fairness,” Mrs Butler-Turner said, the government said there were items they were still working out and the environmental levies could fall under that – “but once they would have determined what those were, there should have been an announcement, there should have been dissemination of all of these levies and these increases and that has not happened.”

Environmental fees include $15 for importation of refrigerators and freezers, $5 for car tires, $25 for tractor tires, $15 for stove gas or fuel, $5 for microwave ovens, $15 for washers and dryers, $10 for air conditioners, $5 for televisions, $5 for cell phones, and $5 for computers, lap-tops, and printers.