Suriname’s Customs Chief has been invited to visit Guyana this month to address the smuggling problem between the two countries, according to the Surinamese newspaper de Ware Tijd.
In light of the growing smuggling of alcohol, cigarettes and foodstuff between the two countries, the authorities here have requested that Suriname’s Customs chief August van Hamme visit Guyana at the end of this month to discuss this problem.
Van Hamme told dWT: “They have indicated that it often happens that only part of the goods that have been reported by Suriname for transit actually arrives in Guyana. It is suspected that those goods that have not arrived are somehow returned illegally to Suriname. Some goods also end up in Guyana, where duties are avoided.”
The report said that an increasing loss of revenues for Guyana’s treasury would be the reason for the head of the Guyanese revenue authority to send the invitation. “We will discuss this matter and determine which methods we will use to combat this”, Van Hamme adds. He even warns that there could be increased smuggling when the duties on alcohol and cigarettes will be doubled, as the government has announced. “This only makes smuggling more attractive”, Van Hamme says. He also points out that this is a global phenomenon between neighbouring countries. Smuggling is also a problem along the border with French Guiana, but to a lesser extent.
And in its editorial in today’s issue dWT said “Customs should cooperate with the police to prevent smuggling. The anti-social behavior of malicious elements cannot be tolerated any longer and must be dealt with and punished harshly. Hopefully, the talks between Suriname’s Customs and the Guyanese authorities are the beginning of a hard battle against smuggling of all kinds of products and goods.”
