Director of the General Directorate of Customs in Syria, Qutaiba Ahmed Badawi, said that the new administration canceled more than 10 additional fees in internal circulars to crossings and ports, which were the main reason for the rise in the price of goods in local markets and the financial exhaustion of Syrians, and their inability to buy the most basic necessities of daily life.
The Syrian News Agency quoted Badawi as saying that the new administration “abolished the so-called enclosure fee,” which was created by “the defunct regime and its cronies” in violation of local and international customs laws and regulations, according to the agency’s expression.
Badawi pointed out that the customs duties imposed by the Assad regime on the import of goods did not achieve any of the goals for which they were set, and were in the personal interest of some influential regime figures to fill their personal coffers with citizens’ money under the guise of public interest, according to the agency’s description.
Badawi: In the next few days, work will be done to issue a single customs tariff throughout Syria that will achieve the public interest
Edit import
Badawi added that the new administration will work to liberate the movement of importing goods from all restrictions imposed on it by the Assad regime, and will allow merchants to import all goods and materials that are not prohibited by their legal and legitimate nature, and successive decisions will be issued to achieve this.
He pointed out that the General Directorate of Customs is working to establish a new administrative and technical structure for the Directorate and its affiliated branches, in a way that achieves the public interest and the interest of Syrians by facilitating the administrative procedures necessary to complete administrative and customs transactions.
He said that the directorate “suffers from a bad administrative and technical condition due to the reality of corruption, nepotism, and administrative laxity that has permeated it. The bad condition of the directorate during the era of the former regime was reflected negatively as a loss of the rights of the public treasury and the rights of citizens and merchants.”
He added that the Directorate is seeking to issue a package of administrative decisions regarding the General Directorate of Customs, in the next few days.
Badawi noted the cancellation of the financing book, which was one of the most harmful financial measures to the local economy, the merchant, and the citizen alike, and which had a direct negative impact on the import movement, and resulted in a significant increase in the price of goods in the local markets that exhausted the citizen and hindered him from securing his minimum basic needs for living. According to his description.
Uniform tariff
Badawi said that work will be done in the next few days to issue a single customs tariff throughout Syria that will achieve the public interest in the economic and social development of the state and preserve the rights of merchants, industrialists, and farmers from competition with foreign goods, by implementing a policy of customs protection for local industries and products, and this tariff will be reduced. The financial burden on citizens, as he put it.
He stressed that the new administration will work to address all outstanding administrative and technical issues in the General Directorate of Customs and the regional directorates, while addressing the status of seized and confiscated goods, tools, and machinery.
Badawi called on the owners of confiscated property, which survived acts of sabotage and theft by the remnants of the Assad regime, to review the General Directorate and the regional directorates, bringing with them proof of their ownership. He said, “We will work to return what was confiscated or seized illegally.”
He called on citizens, merchants, and customs brokers to “help us in fighting corruption in all its forms and manifestations, by informing us directly during the completion of their administrative and customs transactions about every legal or administrative defect.”
