Minister learns more about SRC's offices, challenges and plans...
February 20, 2019
After his previous visits to three banks earlier this week, Minister Maurice Loustau Lalanne continues on his induction tours to other departments under his portfolio. During his visit to the offices of the Seychelels Revenue Commission, SRC at the New Port, the Finance Minister noted the concerns of the staff in issues such as the Asycuda, training for clients in the HS Code, lack of human resources, limited space for staff, security, the government warehouse, to note a few.
Minister Lalanne was given explanations on the workings, roles and functions of the various sections of the Customs Deparment and was informed that the Classification, Verification and Rules of Origin Unit will be established soon.
On Wednesday 21st february, the delegation headed to the SRC offices at the Seychelles International Airport; again much discussions on availability of space for staff as well as for the day to day running of the operations.
At the arrival, it was pointed out that there passengers would often complain about declaring their goods, scanning of luggage. Customs Officers believe that there is a need to improve the working environment and also need more equipment to facilitate their work. At the cargo terminal, Mr Joachim Woodcock, gave an overview of the workings of his unit. He noted that there is a need to have a centralised system or procedure in place for the collection of goods at the cargo terminal. At the moment, receipts, payments and colelction are being done in different places and this often creates a lot of confusions, and that the luggage takes up a lot of space.
Mr. Woodcock noted that the area at the cargo terminal should be more organised, controlled and restricted to better deal with the increasing surge of cargoes coming in, and that the government cage is too small for the amount of goods and or cargo that they deal with on a daily basis.
A lot of people are nowadays importing from countries like China, Taiwan, Japan, and Mr. Paul Barrack, the Commissioner of Customs, proposed that there should be bilateral agreements with these countries and reiterate the fact that there is a lack of space at the cargo terminal.
Minister Maurice Loustau Lalanne, commended the work and effort of the SRC staff and taken note of all the issues raised, and assured the satff that he will do his best to address the issues raised.