Part of the workshop on Customs warehouses
Dubai Customs last week conducted the first session of its introductory workshops on Customs Warehouses for 100 large importing, exporting and re-exporting companies operating in UAE. The session comes within a series of workshops planned by the Dept. to be conducted during the second half of this current year. The presentation will focus on procedures for obtaining licenses to establish Customs Warehouses, and benefits provided by these warehouses.
Mr. Mohammed Al Muaini, Director of Tariff and Origin Department at Dubai Customs said: “The Common Customs Law of the GCC States has specified two types of Customs Warehouses – Private and Public Customs Warehouses. The two types of the warehouses are meant to serve companies to help them deposit goods under the control of customs without paying customs fees. They only have to submit whatever collaterals needed by bank, or any deposit or cash guarantee or any other alternatives or other services and fines against the deposited goods until they are sold out for the local consumption or re-exported outside the country.
The bank guarantee due under the Customs Warehouses Policies is no less than AED 50.000 for the Private Customs Warehouses, and AED 500.000 for the Public Customs Warehouses. Traders, shipping agencies, banks, car agencies, and imports and exports companies can make use of these policies and submit application for acquiring the licenses electronically via Dubai Trade Portal www.dubaitrade.ae (this link will open an external website in a new window) or via Dubai Customs websites www.dxbcustoms.gov.ae, he explained. The procedures for acquiring licenses take less than 5 working days, if all requirements are met. The Private Warehouse is intended only to deposit the goods of owning companies and the Public Warehouse owning companies are allowed to deposit goods of a number of other companies because they are considered as investing agencies, he explained.
Wider expansion in these warehouses shall embolden importing activities because it helps traders clear their goods at the customs ports without paying direct customs duties and store their goods in the Customs Warehouses for a period of two years subject to extend for a third year until entering to the local consumption or re-exporting outside the country. This is in addition to many other benefits that owner of a warehouse can enjoy in turn. Some of these benefits include discharging of goods in phases, e.g. promotion and transference of goods during festival events and seasonal markets. The warehouses also reduce loss for traders that may incur due to absence of cash guarantee at the time of failure to re-export the goods within the legal grace period (6months) in the case of goods imported for re-exportation. It helps importers to take sample from their deposited goods to display in markets, AL Muaini explained.
“ Under customs efficient control via the electronic warehouse inventory system these procedures followed and in accordance to the customs declaration which regulates the procedures of the deposited goods and exit permit, the contents are accordingly inspected as according to the necessary customs cases (local market or re-exportation or deposit goods in free Zones)
With regard to the importance of Customs Warehouses to Customs, Mr. Mohammed Al Muaini said: “ the Warehouses facilitate control process on the stored goods and reduce the risks that may arise from activities of imports for re-exportation. These will enable the Customs administration to check conformity and match imported goods with goods re-exported outside the country. In addition to that, the Warehouses ensure increase of revenues with regard to the licensing and renewal of Private Warehouse license fees with amount of (ADE25.000) and Public Customs Warehouses fees (ADE150.000)
At present, there are 18 Warehouses that obtained licenses from Dubai Customs and from the beginning of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011, the cleared declarations under this case reached to 23,479 declarations.
The numbers of these Customs Warehouses are expected to increase as they are increasingly being known to commercial and logistics sectors, especially, when considering the benefits that owners of warehouses might gain.