Public Information

Prohibited goods may not be imported or exported in any circumstances. They include narcotics and psychotropic substances outside licensed medical supply, counterfeit goods and pirated media, and material that breaches public security or morality.

Restricted goods may be imported only with prior approval from the competent regulator. Firearms and ammunition, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, plants, seeds and live animals, foodstuffs, telecommunications and radio equipment, and chemicals with dual use all fall into this group.

Obtain the permit before the goods arrive. Customs cannot release restricted goods on an undertaking to produce the permit later, and storage charges accrue while the consignment waits.

You are entitled to a written decision with reasons, to be told the appeal route and its deadline, to request release against a guarantee while a dispute is pending, and to be treated consistently with published rulings and circulars.

In return you must declare accurately and completely, retain your records for five years, produce the goods and documents when asked, and pay assessed duty within the stated period.

If you believe an officer has acted improperly, raise it with the office supervisor first. Complaints about conduct and appeals against decisions follow different routes; the appeals committee handles decisions only.

Penalties reflect the seriousness of the breach: whether revenue was lost, whether the goods were restricted, and whether the error was careless or deliberate. Repeated breaches escalate, and serious cases can lead to suspension of a trader file or a broker licence.

Voluntary disclosure before customs detects an error is treated more leniently. Submit a written correction with the affected declaration references and pay any shortfall; the authority will normally confine the outcome to the duty and a reduced penalty.

Records are auditable for five years after release, so a post-clearance audit can revisit a consignment long after it has left the port.

Personal effects in use, and gifts within the published value limit, may be brought in without duty. The allowance is personal — it cannot be pooled across a family to cover one high-value item.

Currency and bearer instruments at or above the declaration threshold must be declared in writing on arrival and on departure. The declaration is free and does not imply suspicion; failing to declare is an offence.

Use the green channel only when you have nothing to declare. If you are uncertain, use the red channel and ask — a declared item may attract duty, but an undeclared one can be seized.

Customs collects the information needed to assess duty, control goods and produce trade statistics. That includes declaration data, supporting commercial documents and the identity of the persons acting before customs.

Data is shared with other government bodies only where the law provides for it — tax administration, sector regulators issuing permits, and law enforcement in the course of an investigation. Aggregated statistics are published without identifying individual traders.

Records are retained for the statutory period, after which they are archived or destroyed. You may ask what is held about you and request correction of factual errors.

Head office and district counters open Sunday to Thursday, 08:00 to 15:00. Major seaports and airport terminals operate extended and out-of-hours shifts to match vessel and flight schedules.

Where you need an officer outside published hours, request overtime attendance in advance through the portal. An attendance fee applies per officer per hour under the published fee schedule.

On official holidays only essential entry-point operations run. Plan perishable and time-critical consignments around the published holiday calendar.