Panel to oversee Customs Union enforcement

A committee from the seven local customs departments was formed yesterday by the UAE Customs Council to oversee the execution of the GCC Customs Union and to eliminate obstacles during the process.

In the presence of representatives from the seven departments and the UAE Ministry of Finance and Industry, the more than four-hour meeting discussed the Doha Summit resolutions, actual moves for the implementation of the Customs Union and the UAE's new 5 per cent tax starting tomorrow.

Rashid Hammad, the acting UAE Customs Council chairman, explained that customs duties on goods passing through the UAE to another GCC country, will be collected here on its behalf and sent to it afterwards. "If the goods are going to Saudi Arabia, through the UAE, the taxes will be collected here, before being sealed and sent to it," he explained.

"The UAE will not establish a separate joint fund for the collection of GCC tax revenues but each emirate will send the taxes to the designated other country on its own.

Hammad stressed the UAE's readiness for the implementation of the moves and said the meeting also discussed the GCC approved list of 417 exempted goods, tax collection mechanisms at final destination during the transitional period, tasks of inter-GCC customs posts statistical declarations and others.

"Exempted goods include foodstuffs and raw materials for industry," Hammad said.