The Customs division has collected a total of R9,538,680 in the form of trades tax and GST for 24,860 cartons of Castle beer cans imported by the Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB) in January.

This was revealed by the Minister for Industries and International Business, Mr Jacquelin Dugasse, in reply to a question put forth by the Leader of the Opposition Hon. Wavel Ramkalawan in the National Assembly on Tuesday March 23, regarding what he claimed to have been false declarations made by SMB about the import of Castle beer in order to avoid paying duty and GST.

Hon. Ramkalawan was referring to 11 containers which arrived in the country on board M.V Shearwater from Durban, South Africa on January 18.

Refuting Hon. Ramkalawan’s claims, Minister Dugasse said all the necessary documents showed that SMB had followed all the required procedures when importing the Castle beer.

Explaining the procedures governing the import of commodities into the country, Minister Dugasse said that upon arriving in the port, the agency or proprietor of the cargo vessel delivers to the Customs authority a ship manifest about all the items destined for Seychelles or in transit to another country. An arrival notice from the agency is sent to the importer who proceeds to pay all port dues, including handling fees. The importer must then submit a series of documents to Customs, including the Bill of Entry, the Bill of Lading, invoices, packing list, among others, which are processed prior to paying the necessary taxes. 

In the case of the cargo in question, Minister Dugasse said, the Bill of Lading which accompanied the containers was dated on January 6 and clearly stated that they were addressed to the SMB Trading and contained "24,860 cartons of Castle beer." The first ship manifest which was received by Customs, he said, indicated that the containers contained "5,012 white PVC pipes measuring 5.6 metres by 6 centimetres.' Later during the month, he said, another amended manifest was sent to Customs suggesting that there were "99 reel 2-ply toilet paper jumbo reel" as raw material.  On February 13 the vessel's agency again amended the manifest to say that the containers contained Castle beer which was in line with the Bill of Lading.

Minister Dugasse pointed out that amending manifest was a normal practice carried out in all ports and was also an acceptable procedure in the shipping business.

The Bill of Entry submitted to Customs he said also gave an exact description of the contents of the containers as stated on the Bill of Lading and based on that trades tax and GST were calculated.

The minister said he was satisfied that SMB had followed all the necessary legal and administrative procedures when handling this transaction.

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