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Customs looking at hefty fine for importer
Three hundred pairs of shoes, 58 cartons of cigarettes, a 50-kVA generator, and cases of pesticides and liquor.
These were the undeclared or undervalued items discovered by the Division of Customs about two weeks ago during an inspection of an importer’s container at the Port of Saipan.
“We have a company that we are now holding,” Mafnas told Saipan Tribune yesterday, noting that the cigarettes, pesticides, and liquor were smuggled. The 300 pairs of shoes were not declared as well. And the generator was valued at $1,500.
Mafnas would not disclose the importer’s name when asked.
“It’s been here two weeks. We are just working with the importer, interviewing them. We inspected the container and we found all of this undervalued, undeclared” items, he said.
He said fines for these items would be based on existing regulation, which calls for fines of up to 100 percent of market value. He noted that the market value for the shoes was at $30 each. “Thirty times 300—that would be the fine,” he said.
In total, fines for this particular importer—per regulation—would amount to $29,000. Mafnas noted, though, that the fines would not be $29,000 but would “still be reasonable and hefty.”
“If we forced, or say, we are not going to release this container until you pay the $29,000, there is a possibility that the importer will” refuse to pay and leave it with Customs.
“This is their first offense. We are looking at maybe a $10,000 fine” but on a second or third offense, it would be “worse.” He said he was meeting with the importer yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)
