Anguilla is coming of age with other countries having now its own prescribed Customs Declaration Forms to be filled in and submitted by all persons arriving at the island’s ports of entry with or without imported goods.

Comptroller of customs, Kenrick Richardson

“It is part and parcel with what we are doing to bring Customs in line with modern-day systems,” Anguilla’s Comptroller of Customs, Kenrick Richardson, told The Anguillian on Tuesday this week. “We were about the only country not filling in forms for Customs purposes. We have now joined the rest of the region in ensuring that a Customs form is filled whenever a person is travelling to Anguilla.”

It means that travel agencies, aircraft and boats transporting Anguillians and all other persons to the island will be issued with the new forms to pass on to passengers to declare imported goods at Wallblake Airport, the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal and Road Bay. The forms will be issued with effect from June 15 under an arrangement involving the Government of Anguilla, the Customs Department, travel agencies and operators.

“Instead of verbal declarations by passengers, as had always been the case, there will now be a formal written procedure,” Mr. Richardson explained. “The forms will be produced by the Customs Department and handed to airlines, ships’ agents and will be filled in by passengers for submission to Customs Officers. This means that whatever you purchase abroad, you should have the necessary receipts or invoices etc attached to the forms. You will also have to clear the goods …because we will still have to do our normal inspection of goods so that we could arrive at what the true value should be.

“This is not a substitute for persons to declare false values because if you read the forms, there is a penalty for false declarations. I am therefore asking the public to fill in the forms truthfully. This is not a short-cut situation. It is one whereby you have to comply with the rules and regulations as far as the declaration of goods is concerned.”

Mr. Richardson went on: “The requirement for these forms should not be new to Anguillians because we have travelled abroad to the various islands in the Caribbean and further-afield. We have to fill in such forms when we travel to those countries so it shouldn’t be anything new to them.”

In order to avoid long queues at the airport or other ports of entry, the forms will be distributed to passengers by the travel agencies in advance of their return or arrival so that they would have the completed forms ready for submission to the Customs inspectors.

Mr. Richardson said the forms would serve as clear evidence that imported goods were handled in a formal written manner. “The law permits us to keep that declaration up to seven years so we will have seven years going back to be assured that what was declared was done so truthfully and is in keeping with our obligations world-wide.”

He acknowledged that the forms, as well as other related methods, would ensure that revenue collection would be better targeted in this difficult financial time than at present. Mr. Richardson made the point that even if persons were to have nothing to declare they would still be required to fill in the forms and state so specifically.

He gave the this advice to all persons: “If you have anything to declare, you will be required to put the value of the goods on the reverse side of the forms and attach the receipts as far as possible so that you can verify, with the Customs Officer, that ‘this is my purchase and I am here to pay my duty, tell me how much it is.’”

A copy of the coming Customs Declaration Forms showing the front and reverse sides is published elsewhere in this edition of The Anguillian and will also be printed in the subsequent three issues of the newspaper.

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