A meeting of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce with the General Customs.. The necessity of facilitating and simplifying procedures and the movement of import and export

Damascus-SANA

A meeting between the Damascus Chamber of Commerce and the General Customs Administration today discussed the movement of import and export, and the work of customs within the framework of subsequent control over imports, combating smuggling and its role in controlling borders, and customs hubs, in cooperation and coordination with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, to address the problems and obstacles that obstruct everything related to economic activity. .

The Director General of Customs, Dr. Majid Omran, reviewed the customs procedures taken in everything related to traders and industrialists, whether in terms of import or export, facilitating the flow of goods, and simplifying procedures, noting that the automation of customs work includes procedures for import and export from submitting the customs declaration and the required documents, leading to the calculation of fees.

And he indicated that work is underway to implement the tracking project by the Customs Administration, which is related to controlling the movement of trucks in transit, and tracking the movement of customs patrols, stressing the need for traders to assume their responsibilities in checking customs data, noting that whoever is proven to have committed abuses in the customs declaration, whether from customs brokers. Or workers are held accountable, and that work is underway to activate electronic payment, in coordination with the Syrian Electronic Payments, in a manner that facilitates and controls the payment of fees.

For his part, the head of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, Muhammad Abu Al-Huda Al-Lahham, stressed the need for cooperation and coordination between the Chamber and the General Customs Directorate, to overcome the obstacles facing import and export operations and customs clearance, calling for the amendment of customs duties on some imports, to enable the consumer to obtain them at acceptable prices, and to reduce costs. burdens to prevent tax evasion.

Secretary of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce Waseem Qattan called for expediting the issuance of the new customs law, reducing customs burdens to secure goods and materials for citizens at acceptable prices, strictness in combating food smuggling from Syria, and addressing the situation of goods, machinery and equipment that lost their customs data, stressing the Chamber’s readiness to cooperate with customs, With the need for its representatives to accompany the customs patrols, and to adopt their opinion and experience.

In their turn, a number of merchants called in their interventions to extend the working hours of the Customs Directorate beyond the end of the official working hours, to activate the single window, to speed up the adjustment of indicative prices successively within the “ASYCUDA” system, to return customs duties for imported goods with temporary entry, to reduce these fees, and to settle the status of goods The old imported ones and those in the shops in the liberated areas, whose customs data are missing due to the war.

In his response to the interventions, the Director of General Customs affirmed that all the issues raised will be addressed, and the law applied against defaulters and violators, whether they are importers, faithful, workers or customs patrols, pointing out that reducing the costs of goods and merchandise requires cooperation and solidarity by all, stressing that any Goods conforming to the customs declaration may not be seized, and it is not allowed for any customs patrol to seize raw materials for the local industry and machinery except after coordination with the customs directorates, and ensuring that they are violated.

Dr. Omran indicated that all parties concerned with the new customs law have taken their opinion, and sent it to the Ministry of Finance to be later discussed and issued, stressing that the general customs in its regional directorates and customs secretariats are ready and ready, and will continue their work to control smuggled goods, and combat all forms of smuggling to The side of its work in checking the fulfillment of fees.

In response to an intervention about unpaid fines in the hundreds of millions for the benefit of the public treasury in a case related to the subsequent control of imports, the director of anti-smuggling Ghiath Hamdan confirmed that the unpaid fine to date on the aforementioned case amounts to about 760 million Syrian pounds, and the case owner objected to the amount The directorate was reviewed several times for this, and a legal deadline was given until the full amount was paid to the public treasury of the state.

Hamdan pointed out that this case's violation of the General Customs Law is very clear, and therefore the Anti-Smuggling Directorate has fully implemented its procedures, in accordance with the Customs Law.

Ahmed Suleiman and Waseem Al-Adawi

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