After the turmoil caused by the customs decision to carry out a preventive analysis of passengers traveling abroad to try to prevent smuggling, the head of the agency, Guillermo Michel, assured this Thursday that “obviously, It is not for those who come from abroad and bring clothes or objects without commercial purposes. (a phone, a notebook, a tablet). It is aimed at people who wear garments for commercial or drug purposes.”
The official thus came out to calm travelers who usually take advantage of holidays abroad to buy products that are not sold or cost less than those in the country
The allowance for the entry of goods from abroad is US$500 per person, plus an additional US$500 purchased in the free shop. If these limits are exceeded, 50% of the deductible must be paid.
As explained by the official in the “Lanata sin filter” program of radio Mitre, “the Customs has three sources of information on passengers from abroad. The first is preventive information that the World Customs Organization has begun to standardize after the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 and consisting of general data of the flight and the passenger’s specifications, such as the duration of the journey, stopovers and baggage”.
The second group of information is what foreign prosecutors tell us when Argentines request the tax refund (or VAT refund), mainly in Europe, he explained. “We’ve got a good deal of oil with Spain and we’re working on it with the Italian financial police. An Argentinian asks for a VAT refund in Madrid and the Argentine Customs finds out”.
The third group of information comes from Interpol Notices. “A recent case was that of a coin and banknote smuggler stemming from an Interpol alert. He informed customs of a person who was smuggling currency because he already had a number of criminal cases around the world for it,” he added. Michael.
The head of customs gave as an example a case where they received one such notice. “We did an analysis of a passenger around passport age and how he had paid for passage abroad. This person He came from Lisbon and paid for the ticket in cash. When it arrived in our country, it was checked and He brought 7.8 kg of liquid MDMA. It arrived, in fact, in the high season of electronic parties in Argentina”.
Barriers to imports
Regarding the problems obtaining import permits denounced by the chambers of commerce, Michel said that all sectors must be provided with the necessary inputs and foreign currency, but stressed that in 2022 Argentina imported 81.5 billion dollars, compared to 60 billion in 2015 and 49 billion dollars in 2019. “Imports, there are,” he said.
“What they raise over certain products, yes: we are clearly optimizing currencies. We must try to allocate the dollars for everything that is productive, auto parts, energy and not for certain goods such as golf clubs, yachts, luxury shoes. This is a reality and we cannot deny it,” she admitted.
Source: Clarin
