Doha: The General Authority of Customs (GAC) has announced 302,280 customs declarations were released in May, a decrease from April’s figures which was 312,534.
In its monthly newsletter, the GAC also stated that the air cargo customs reached 276,994 declarations, while the maritime customs totalled 24,966. Also, the GAC released 98 percent of its declarations in just one hour.
India maintained its position as the top exporting country, while the United States of America also remained the number one importing country after displacing China in April.
The GAC’s Environmental protection Reserves and Wildlife Department remained the Best Government Agency (time of releases) with an average release time of two hours.
The Customs department also transferred 24,580 declarations to other government agencies in May.
In its bid to improve services in the country’s ports, airports, and land borders, the GAC has embarked on training programmes and invested in the latest equipment to thwart the efforts of smugglers of contraband and harmful drugs.
In May, the GAC filed 100 seizure reports, with their largest seizure of the month being 36,027 pieces of Captagon pills.
Meanwhile, the GAC stressed that it would impose strict penalties on those who attempt to smuggle unauthorised goods into the country according to the law.
The GAC stated that if the smuggled goods are subject to high customs duties, the penalty shall be a fine not less than double the customs duties due and not more than double the value of the goods.
Perpetrators would be imprisoned for not less than a month and not exceeding a year, or one of these two penalties.
If the contraband is not subject to customs duties, the penalty shall be a fine of not less than 10 percent of the goods’ value and imprisonment.
Also, if the goods are prohibited, the penalty shall be not less than the value of the goods and not more than three times their value, and imprisonment for not less than six months and not exceeding three years, or one of these two penalties.
