Commercial Import Fees If Not Using E-Options
Starting this fall, the Customs Department will begin charging commercial importers for not using electronic options to declare incoming goods.
“The new fees will be levied through the Customs Department Act 1952 and the Government Fees Regulations 1976,” a spokesperson said.
“Starting this fall, any Bermuda Customs Declaration [BCD] submitted on paper will incur a manual data inputting fee. The fees are to be charged to the declarant at a rate of sixty cents [60¢] per record on each BCD submitted.
“The fees could be substantial for some large importers landing different types of items. They will be levied by way of a direct charge to the importer’s duty account.
“First raised during the Budget Debate in March by Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance the Hon. E.T. Richards JP MP, the fee is not a revenue raising measure.
“It is an incentive to declarants of imported goods to file electronic submissions of BCDs. The fees offset the considerable cost in overtime to the Customs Department of manually inputting the data into the Customs Automated Processing System [CAPS].
“Importers may submit electronic BCDs by filing to CAPS via the Customs File Transfer Protocol [FTP] site or by entering declaration data using the browser-based ‘Webtrader’ facility offered by the Customs Department.
“File transfers through the Customs FTP site require the in-house development, or the off-the-shelf purchase, of software. The Webtrader service is completely free of charge.
“For more information, contact The Customs Department by mail, visit Customs House on Front Street or contact the CAPS Helpdesk Section of The Customs Department: capshelpdesk@gov.bm [Tel: 278-7446].”
Read More About
Category: All, Business, News, technology
That what retail businesses need, more expenses
Read the article, idiot.
the unseen cost is that of additional staff or man-hours to do this on a computer OR the re-training of staff to do this job. there MAY BE additional costs passed on to the consumer.
I know that some people who are not up on their technological skills will suffer initially and yet others will have a knee jerk reaction and be frightened but education is the key – good one Customs.
Question for Customs – will you be holding workshops (if they are not already available) for retailers, etc to get familiar?
Thought you lot wanted to get rid of ‘corporate welfare’.
Looks like prices will go up across the board.
Why? Should be faster & more accurate this way for importers, fewer resubmissions of rejected entries.
Technology really can make things easier and more efficient for a business. It’s a fact. For those not up to date with technology, wouldn’t this be a good time to start the process of educating yourself? Technology is everywhere in our daily lives. It’s not going to get any less complicated, so you may as well make the solid decision to dive in right now!
Supposing a business does not use a computer are you gonna penalise them for doing what they have done for years, submitting paper-work ?