Customs director Jose Mafnas announced yesterday another significant increase in revenue collections and fiscal year improvements between 2016 and 2017 following upgrades to detection equipment and operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen comparing revenue collection [between fiscal year] 2016 [and] 2017, the months of October to May collections have moved up by 8.4 percent, which amounts to $2.7 million. This is a direct result of increased detection of undeclared products and re-evaluation of imported goods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mafnas noted that, in addition to the increased detections and efficiency, the collection of outstanding accounts has improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrict enforcement, which has steadily progressed since last year, has allowed our inspection process to increase revenue generation and allow our officers to better detect suspicious importations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson, the total amount of revenue collection from October to May 2017 amounts to a total of $33.8 million with four months left in fiscal year 2017 to take into account.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScrutinizing the detection of undervalued high tax rate commodities, detection of undeclared commodities, and increasing the fines and sanctions of counterfeit goods have definitely benefited\u00a0the economy. Our revenue collections from the Division of Customs have increased every fiscal year. In the same months of [fiscal year] 2016, we collected $29.2 million and in [fiscal year] 2015, $20 million was collected,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said that customs operations have drastically improved since the Customs Academy was established four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the establishment of the academy and upgrades to the computer system, our seaports, airports, and postal offices and the added support of X-ray machines and the [canine] detection units, so much has changed to safeguard our islands and improve our economy,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
He noted that more progress with the \u201cwar on ice\u201d is taking center stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore often we are seeing custom officers intercept methamphetamine concealed in small containers that would\u2019ve been difficult to detect in previous years. Our routine inspections at our commuter terminals with the K9 units have also been very successful,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Mafnas said that Customs is regularly trained to ensure all officers are informed of new laws, regulations, and various drug concealment methods.<\/p>\n
Adding on to the changes since the \u201cwar on ice\u201d began, Mafnas said the division has also procured new equipment to analyze narcotics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe TruNarc identifies narcotics, stimulants, and other drugs, which provide our officers with clear definitive results for presumptive identification and quick interception. We will continue to be vigilant at the ports of entry to ensure that illegal drugs are seized and commodities and goods are accounted for,\u201d he said. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Customs director Jose Mafnas announced yesterday another significant increase in revenue collections and fiscal year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[314,17603,410,8406],"class_list":["post-256448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-computer","tag-customs-academy","tag-drugs","tag-jose-mafnas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}