The Customs Division made more money in 2018 than it has since its inception, Comptroller of Customs Raju Buddo has confirmed.
He said the division recorded revenues of EC$ 389 million, a new record.
But Buddo said that figured fell slightly short of the EC$ 400 million projected.
He said the division saw a slump in its revenue in November due to decreased imports.
Despite falling below projections, the comptroller said 2018 revenues surpassed that of 2017 by 18 million dollars.
He is commending the staff and crediting the new ASYCUDA system for the increase in revenue.
The electronic system was implemented last year.
“This is highest collected revenue in the history of Antigua and Barbuda,” the customs boss boasted.
The 2019 goal in EC$ 400 million.
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Only in Antigua can a top technician make such public statement and get away with it even when both Ministerial Heads responsible Finance are Economist . Firstly Mr. radju global prices have risen over the year 2018 , hence cif values must increase as well . An increase in cif values ceterus paribus would lead to higher revenue .. secondly the economy is expected to grow at around 4.5 percent in 2018 which would imply that the base (imports) must be expanding as well . moreover it is widely expected that indirect taxes are bouyant or should i say elastic which means that for a given change in the tax base we should expect a more than proportionate change in the revenue collected . eg if we use an elasticy of 1.1 ie marginally above unitary and a growth rate of 4.5 percent and inflation rate of 1 percent revenues for 2018 should total at 430 million. concession are held constant unless u can show that in 2018 concession was 41 million higher than in 2017. so before u give cedit to ur staff and assycuda , take time and analyze the data properly ..
Spot on just add on the fact they switched software. Previous software was bleeding money by miscalculating. Jamaica created the old software and they stopped using it almost 2 years before Antigua because they realized they had lost nearly 9 million US dollars. We finally switched to a software being used by the majority of other countries supplied by the UN for free. That correction alone showed a major jump in collections just by correcting the accounting, and allowing for more efficient processing methods that the old software did not allow for. All the supposed improvements to customs are not new, they are just processes we could not manage with the old system. What’s really good is that the new system makes it difficult for persons to fudge entries.. Now if they would only publish the duty rates so we could all see them.
you do realize that ASYCUDA went live October 2016,? Boss it was not freely provided. A 2013 OMG article put the price tag at 1.3 million USD (see US $1.3 million for Customs to go back to old system, Dec 2013). They failed to raise the funds which the ABLP admin was later able to raise. CIP helped pay for it. You need only check the reports on the CIP website to see this
I am happy to see Antigua having senior-level multi-cultural government executives, which reflects the idea that Antigua can be a global nation, not just a regional one. If we can attract leading talent from around the world (regardless of race or creed) to locate and build their life in Antigua, then we have an excellent future ahead for us. Thank you for your government service Mr. Buddo!
Even if you did nothing the Port Revenue would increase. Nothing to brag about here.
Tell me there were more tourist arrivals and much taxes were collected from the hotels but dont be too happy for squeezing more sweat from residents at the port because most of that money importers paid out was basically added to the cost of consumer goods, added to the foods at the supermarket etc simply causing an increase in cost of living and inflation, the residents indirectly paying for that and so we have less spending power when you take more from our pockets at the port.
Hill you do realize that foods and such for the guests come via the said port? Taxes are also collected on them. As far as tourism the numbers up to the end of Nov point to about a 10% increase (you can find them via the AHTA website, under statistics) in comparison to the year to date figure a year before. We have especially large increases from the Canadian market
CUSTOMS OFFICERS BANK ACCOUNTS ARE ALSO AT AN ALL TIME HIGH….
How is it possible that so many CUSTOM OFFICERS are MILLIONAIRES?
How is it possible that they can build MILLION DOLLAR HOMES FROM THEIR POCKETS HOW?
HUGE APARTMENT BUILDINGS IN PRIME LOCATIONS without having any history of owning a business, winning the lottery, or inheritance.
MR INDIAN REMEMBER THERE IS ALWAYS A MONEY TRAIL ALL OF IT IS TRACEABLE …. Where is your report on all the millionaires that you manage daily?
OPEN SECRET..
Are there any facts to prove that the previous software was miscalculating . i thought under all three system (case, asycuda, asycuda world ) its the brooker who selected the codes , prepare the warrant , which is then verrified by the tarrif clerks before entering it into the system . Also while i agree the sytem help build efficiency but to place the increase in revenue soly on the system and compliance before accounting for economic growth, inflationary impact on CIF values and tax elasticities is so misleading . This is where the arguement needs to be base. The only this could be justified is if import level remained flat in 2018. which i am certain is not the case . it is ok to cimpliment ur staff on their performance but not ok to wrongly attribute the increase revenue to their performance. The first person that should be commended is the policy makers for taking the right measures that increase growth . Next we should compliment Donald Trump for his fiscsl stimulus that created robust growth in the USA economy for 2018.
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