CUSTOMS DUTY ON PARCELS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 18

CUSTOMS DUTY ON PARCELS

. TO TILE EDITOB 0* TIIZ PRSSS. Sir, —I would like the Collector ol Customs at Christchurch, to notify the public, whether the declared value of the contents of inwards parcels subject to duty is of any value. This morning I received notification that a parcel addressed to my small son awaited delivery at the Parcels Post branch, and that the sum of Is duty, plus parcels clearance fee 6d, was payable. On producing my card at the Post Office counter, I discovered that the contents of the parcel were valued at Is 6d in Sydney, but a youthful customs officer had apparently decided that the contents were in his opinion worth 5s in value, and he declared that duty was payable on his valuation. I paid the amount under protest, but immediately referred the matter to the sub-Collector of His Majesty's Customs, who decided that the duty payable was on the declared value of the contents of the pacrel and quite rightly ordered a refund of the duty paid. Now, I maintain that the average public who receive goods from oversea?, should not be asked, to pay more duty than any article is worth, and further, if the declaration on any parcel subject to duty is of no value, then it is time that the Customs Department made other arrangements regarding values, so that the public would not be "fleeced," by an over-zealous junior officer, who may have an exalted idea of his ability to value general merchandise.—Yours, etc., TEDDY BEAR. April 12, lfJ35. L"ln many cases we find that, on referring goods to experts on value, they are frequently undervalued," said Mr C. O. Trownson, Collector of Customs ai Christchurch, when this letter was shown to him. He added that if the correspondent took the parcel to any expert valuer in the city, he would find out if he had been over- or under-charged by the department."]