00:00Customs Comptroller Riyad Juman responded to a question posed by Joint Select Committee Member and Minister of the Ministry of
00:07Housing, Philip Alexander, about traffic congestion during the afternoon rush hour near the port of Port of Spain.
00:14Our scanner facilities opens at 7 a.m. and closes and we shut down operations at between 9 and 10
00:25p.m. Between the hours of 7 a.m. and maybe around 11 a.m., there are a handful of
00:34containers that come for scanning.
00:37It's not booked and utilized for that period. There's a bottleneck being created from around lunchtime because nobody takes up
00:48the appointments for those times.
00:51Committee Chairman and Independent Senator Sophia Choate wanted to know how the Customs and Excise Division was dealing with the
00:58matter.
00:58If this is a problem that is recognized, you realize that these people are not turning up for their appointments,
01:08what are you doing to alleviate the suffering of motorists who find themselves on Wrightson Road with these huge containers
01:18coming out just as school breaks off?
01:20And these huge containers coming out just as people are heading home from work and it's causing a huge backlog
01:28on the roads.
01:29A follow-up question by the committee's chairman resulted in other details that had been examined previously by another parliamentary
01:37committee.
01:38The information I was given just now referred specifically to containers that have to be scanned.
01:45We don't scan 100% of the containers leaving the port. Delivery authorized containers, most of them are allowed to
01:53leave the port.
01:54Once we do the documentary checks and the screening, the customs agents are allowed to take clearance and delivery from
02:06the port authority to leave.
02:07We have no control over that when they decide to do that.
02:10The minister in the Ministry of Housing expressed a concern that led to a stated objective announced by the customs
02:18controller.
02:19If you have a large section of the D that nobody presents themselves to have their containers scanned,
02:29why in a country that has such a massive drug and narcotics and illegal arms and trafficking problem,
02:38why aren't we scanning 100% of the containers?
02:42So I will say that is the intention of the, my intention of having taken office in August of last
02:48year,
02:49that is my intention to have 100% of the containers leaving the port that have been scanned by the
02:54customs.
02:55The committee's chairman did not allow any follow-up questions on that point,
02:59as she said it did not fall under the specific remit of Wednesday's hearing.
03:03Earlier, the customs controller sought to make clear what the customs and excise division was responsible for.
03:10First, let me say, concerning the containers getting onto Ryston Road, yes, that is a, it is a, it is
03:17a problem.
03:17Um, and it is a major concern for us.
03:22Um, however, the, the, the, the allegation of, um, so to speak, of not being able to pay for, for,
03:31for, um, custom services.
03:34The division payment for any custom service can be made at any customs office that has a revenue collection, um,
03:46point.
03:46Comptroller Druman also said the revenue collection point at Pihako operates on a 24-hour basis.
03:53Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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