$5 to $25 fee on NMI-bound cargo, passengers pushed

If a newly-pre-filed bill becomes law, passengers and cargo bound for the CNMI will be charged a customs and quarantine service fees ranging from $5 to $25 to cover the cost of processing documents and physical inspections at all ports of entry.

Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan) said his House Bill 17-199 should be able to generate over $3 million annually, which is necessary to ensure that general fund resource is given “to where it is badly needed most.”

These include the restoration of regular working hours or 80 hours biweekly instead of 64, on-time payroll, and the payment of overtime for customs and quarantine inspectors, he said.

In an interview yesterday, Yumul said these are only “initial charges” until the Department of Finance and the Department of Lands and Natural Resources come up with the regulations.

Under Yumul’s bill, every airline passenger landing at CNMI airports will be levied a $6.50 passenger charge for customs and agriculture documentation and inspection services.

A document charge of $5 will be imposed on each consignee or other applicable party for each consignment of cargo landing in the CNMI.

A $25 charge will also be levied on each consignee or other applicable party for consolidated consignments of cargo landing in the CNMI.

For ship passengers arriving at CNMI seaports, a passenger charge of $10 will be levied.

The bill also seeks to impose a $5 document charge on the consignee for each consignment of cargo arriving in the CNMI through seaports, and $25 upon each consignee for consolidated consignments of cargo.

Yumul is set to formally introduce the bill during the next session.

The bill, however, exempts from the charges passengers and cargo that are normally not subject to customs and agriculture inspection from travel originating and ending within the CNMI. Also exempted are U.S. military aircraft and sea vessels normally not subject to customs and agriculture inspection.

Over the years, Finance’s Division of Customs and DLNR’s Division of Agriculture conduct inspections and documentation of all goods, commodities or merchandise entering and exiting the CNMI.

“This activity can no longer be paid solely by CNMI taxpayers through the annual general appropriations alone,” the bill says.

Customs and Agriculture’s combined funding needs is about $3 million annually. This annual budget does not include $475,000 for customs, immigration and quarantine reimbursement for airport overtime to which the Legislature has had to transfer out the past two fiscal years through the respective budget laws.

Customs’ seaport branch alone processes 3,000 to 4,000 documents per month.

HB 17-199 says this office has not been able to charge any minimal fees for the document processing for all activities of both the inbound and outbound of cargo, making it difficult for the division to buy supplies to sustain its activities.

“This paperwork activity is in addition to the division’s primary duty as first-line enforcement officers to safeguard the Commonwealth’s interests against contrabands and to ensure that all goods, commodities or merchandise entering into the CNMI is properly declared,” the bill adds.

It also says that a larger share of the processing of documents and physical inspections of cargo and related shipments into and out of the CNMI were for private property of tourists and business travelers.

“These processes are currently completed with minimal to no fees collected for the services that Customs and Quarantine agents conduct,” HB 17-199 adds.