Customs audits recover $38 million

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says $38 million in additional revenue has been collected by Customs in the past financial year following risk-based audits of import and excise entries.

Customs’ trade assurance arm works to verify that import and export entry data is accurate and to ensure correct revenue is collected.  It has an annual target of collecting $15 million in short paid revenue.

“The results from the past year show the systems Customs has in place are working very well.

“Conducting these audits is vital as Customs collects $11.7 billion dollars in revenue for the government through duties on imported goods, and excise duty on fuel, tobacco and alcohol products,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs aims to make compliance easy to achieve and hard to avoid, and works closely with traders to encourage voluntary compliance.

“Findings from the audits also shows the quality of data submitted by importers and exporters significantly improved when compared to the previous year, showing Customs initiatives to make it easier to submit data, and improve data integrity are paying off,” Ms Wagner says.