The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) Officers have intercepted yet another consignment of goods countering attempts of customs duty fraud.

While reviewing the import documents, FRCS Officers found anomalies indicating undeclared goods and upon physical inspection, two cartons of cigarettes and several highly dutiable undeclared goods were discovered. Undeclared goods included new tyres, sofa, sports equipment, food items, printer, vehicle accessories, cosmetics and electrical goods, etc.  

FRCS CEO Mr. Mark Dixon stated that the Service promoted voluntary compliance and trusted the importers and customs agents to accurately report the type, value, and country of origin for the merchandise they bring into the country for which the right amount of duty must be paid.  

However, Mr. Dixon said FRCS will not condone customs fraud as this deprives the Fijian Government of revenue through customs duties and taxes that would otherwise be used to fund vital public services such as schools, hospitals and infrastructure.  

“Additionally, the fraudulent companies also gain a competitive advantage over honest traders by having lower importation costs for their products yet selling at the same prices,” he said.

Customs Agents and Brokers are also reminded to accurately declare all import items on the invoices as an incorrect declaration can be liable to penalties and imposition of further stringent measures.

Last year alone, FRCS either intercepted, detained or seized more than 1330 different goods at the border.

Mr. Dixon has encouraged importers to contact the FRCS team at 324300 or 1326 or email at info@frcs.org.fj for any assistance or clarification.

The 2022/2023 fiscal year started on a very positive note with the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) collecting a net revenue of $190.2m in August 2022. We have outperformed the forecast for the month by $12.9m or 7.3 percent and August 2021 collections by a considerable $105.8m or 125.3%.

FRCS CEO, Mr. Mark Dixon attributed the strong revenue performance to Fiji’s current conducive economic environment.

“A little over 12 months ago, Fiji was experiencing its third wave of COVID-19 infections that led to a massive drop in revenue collections. The comparatives against the tax performance for the same period last year looks very promising and perfectly shows how tax revenue has recovered much faster than earlier anticipated,” Mr. Dixon stated.

Consumption taxes such as Domestic VAT (+$43.6m), Import VAT (+$24.5m) and Fiscal Duty (+$10.6m) recorded an average increase of 132.3%. Furthermore, Company Tax (+$6.9m or 51%), Departure Tax (+$6.2m or 6890%), Withholding Tax (+$4.3m or 102%), Domestic Excise Duty (+$3.6m or 103%), PAYE Tax (+$3.3m or 34%) and Water Resource Tax (+$2.8m or 48%) all recorded collections higher than August 2021 collections.

Revenue collections are expected to remain strong in the future months.

Mr. Dixon also stated that the outstanding result is a testament to the hard work, innovative thinking and dedication of the FRCS Team.

“The results we’ve achieved in recent months demonstrate the strong momentum we have at FRCS. We are extremely proud of this result and grateful to everyone at FRCS for the role they played in achieving these results.

“I would also like to thank our taxpayers for filing their tax returns and paying their taxes. A large percentage of the tax revenue collected by the FRCS comes in voluntarily from taxpayers and we thank them for this,” Mr. Dixon said.

FRCS now has a new Executive Leadership Team (ELT) led by Mr. Dixon. The executive team comprises of the Chief of Staff Mr. Shavindra Nath, Chief Information Officer Ms. Emily Yalimaiwai, Director Intelligence, Compliance & Investigations Ms. Kelerayani Dawai, Director Border & Head of Customs Revenue Ms. Shelini Kumar, Director Taxation Ms. Momina Beg and Director People Capability and Culture Mr. Ben Chand.

“FRCS is progressing in its transformational change journey and businesses and taxpayers are already seeing the many positive benefits of the changes that we have made,” Mr. Dixon said.

He said the new leadership team will further drive the ongoing transformation at FRCS.

FRCS Executive Leadership Team– from the left are, Chief Information Officer Ms. Emily Yalimaiwai, Chief of Staff Mr. Shavindra Nath, Director Intelligence, Compliance & Investigations Ms Kelerayani Dawai, Chief Executive Officer Mr. Mark Dixon (middle), Director Border & Head of Customs Revenue Ms. Shelini Kumar, Director People Capability & Culture Mr. Ben Chand and Director Taxation Ms. Momina Beg.