The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

CUSTOMS’ roll-out of its new electronic platform has exposed several “rogue operators” in the courier sector, its top official saying: “The time has come to separate the sheep from the goats.”

Dr Geannine Moss, the Customs comptroller, told Tribune Business that the full roll-out of its electronic single window (ESW) last week had revealed that “a lot of couriers may have been operating under the radar”.

She added that they had either failed to renew their licences and/or were using legitimate firms to “front” for them and clear imported goods on their behalf - a practice Customs was determined to eliminate.

The situation came to light after courier companies complained that they were caught unawares by the ESW’s full launch. Many were under the impression it was due to go live in March and, as a result, a four-day backlog resulted over the clearance of imported goods.

However, justifying Customs’ stance, Dr Moss explained: “All of their [courier companies’] licenses would have expired on December 31. We have an issue where they have not renewed their business licences and they have not renewed their authorised courier licences.

“We are moving fully now into the electronic single window, which is a higher step in automating the submission of entries. We are now finding that a lot of couriers may have been operating under the radar or were rogue operators. What is required is that they submit all of their relevant documentation to us so that we may register them in the system.”

She continued: “We are finding out that a lot of them didn’t have licences, and they would get a legitimate company to bring goods in for them in their name. The time has now come to separate the sheep from the goats.

“We have companies who have complied and they are getting their goods. We are still running our regular system concurrent with the introduction of the automated system. We began the roll-out in October with DHL and Fedex, and they are on the system.”

Couriers, though, blamed the ESW roll-out for delays in customers receiving their packages. Michael Cooper, a manager at Go Postal, told Tribune Business the launch had been far from smooth.

“Customs rolled-out a new system at the airport where basically everything has to run through one window,” he said. “To my knowledge it was supposed to be rolled out in March, but they decided to roll it out anyway and a lot of couriers were not prepared.

“A lot of us did not know how to use the system properly, and that caused a back-up for about four days with people unable to get their stuff. It was not a smooth roll-out. A lot of couriers had to call Customs IT Department for a walk through.”

Go Postal, in a note sent to its customers last week, said: “I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding. The Bahamas Customs Department introduced a new system on January 7, 2019, that has affected a large amount of couriers in the country. There are certain changes that took place which caused the delay in you receiving your packages.

“We have now completed the necessary requirements related to the change, and should be back to normal business operations within one to three business days.”

Dr Moss, meanwhile, told Tribune Business: “We are now moving to the smaller couriers. All licenses expired December 31, and in order to get into the system they are required to register. The airlines, the freight carriers, they have registered and have submitted their manifests for documentation through the ESW.

“The couriers who would need to access those manifests in order to submit the entries for their customers, they would also need to be registered in order to access the system. That is where those who are non-compliant are having an issue.”

She added: “It’s a compliance issue and everyone just needs to get on board. The couriers are allowed, once they put up a bond, to take the goods away and pay the duty in a certain number of days.

“That facility is available but they have to post the bond for that to happen. We have put on extra officers to assist not only the cargo carriers but any courier who would need to come in and familiarise themselves with how the system works.”

The ESW launch is not the first time where Customs and the courier industry have been at odds. One of Dr Moss’s predecessors as comptroller, Charles Turner, told Tribune Business in 2016 that the Department was having “challenges” in keeping pace with the fast-growing courier sector, and the surge in imports generated by Bahamians switching to online purchasing.

He said the “tremendous volume increase”, caused by the shift to e-commerce and online ordering, had caused difficulties in ensuring due import duties were paid on every shipment. Legislative changes requiring courier companies and freight forwarders to obtain customs broker licenses were designed to give Customs “greater control” over this emerging sector.

And Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s then-financial secretary, in early 2017 accused courier companies of “stealing” from the Public Treasury with three having agreed to pay a collective $7 million in outstanding taxes.

He added that the Department of Inland Revenue was now “targeting” 35 other Bahamas-based couriers, based on the results produced by its initial audits of sector participants.

The ESW is a major part of The Bahamas’ Trade Sector Support Programme, which falls under an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan programme signed in 2012 to modernise Customs enforcement. A soft roll-out began last fall, with the full-roll-out beginning this past week.