NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (December 15, 2020) — A senior officer at the Customs and Excise Department, Nevis Division is reminding the public of an important procedure they must follow when goods are being cleared.

Mr. Roger Fyfield, Assistant Comptroller attached to the Division told the Department of Information of December 14, 2020, that they are critical documents necessary for clearing goods on behalf of others.

“I just want to take this opportunity to remind you the general public also of the Authorisation Form. If you are unable to clear your package and you want someone to clear it on your behalf, we are asking you kindly to send a note to the Customs or you can go on to the Customs website www.skncustoms.com and the permission slip is on there that you can download and you complete it.

“We are also asking you to provide the Customs with a picture ID of yourself. That’s a government-issued picture ID, of course, one that is valid and one that bears your signature, and the person who is clearing your package too is also required to bring a valid government-issued picture ID to Customs,” he said.

Mr. Fyfield also addressed the process the Customs Department is using to determine the fees to paid on packages due to the Federal government’s Christmas concessions on some imported goods.

“The government, they have been kind and gracious to us all by providing the Christmas package…Once you import during the month of December from the 1^st December to 31^st December and you would have cleared your goods during that particular time frame, you would be allowed 400 pounds of food stuff absolutely free. On non-food stuff items, you would get [an] allowance or exemption of US$200 or EC$540…

“If you order a cell phone and it comes in and your cell phone costs US$300, what we will do at the Customs, we will subtract the US$200 and so…the taxes and duties will be levied on US$100, So that’s how that works,” he said.

The Senior Customs Officer explained further on how the concession is applied.

“How it works is per shipment. It is not per piece. You may have a particular shipment that may have 10 pieces or three pieces, you would not get the exemption on each of the pieces. The 10 pieces or how many ever that would be your shipment, and so the total Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) would be added and then the US$200 would be subtracted from that.

“So it is per shipment and not per piece but of course, if you import this week, if you import next week or when you import that is fine because it is per shipment and not per piece. I hope that I have made myself clear, and I hope by doing so persons would better understand and have a better idea of how things work so you can plan accordingly,” he said.

In closing, Mr. Fyfield extend Season’s Greetings to all.

“On behalf of the management and staff of the Customs and Excise Department, Nevis Division, [I] to wish everyone a happy and Merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous 2021,” he said.