A team has begun inspecting factories to ensure regulations are followed to guarantee the lawful use of customs exemptions granted to industrial establishments in 2018.
The team was formed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) to supervise and monitor industrial units whose imports have been exempted from customs regulations.
With the need to accelerate industrial development, the team will provide reports of its visits, and also offer recommendations, in light of the vision of the government and achievement of the objectives.
Eng. Mohammad bin Saeed Al Mahrouqi, head of the customs exemptions section in the Directorate General of Industry, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said, “The team has been entrusted with the task of developing a regulatory base for the process of evaluation of industrial establishments and the extent of their needs for exemption, as well as to check the imports of machines and equipment of industrial establishment exempted from customs, and assure they are present in the factories.”
“The team will also create a list of non-exempted items which are not directly related to the process of production, and will also identify each exempted industrial establishment, and determine the level of exemption for each of them separately,” he added.
This is in addition to the confirmation that machines and equipment imported under this exemption are present inside the factories for which they were meant, the production line working in the factory, production capacity of the factory and the details of its industrial licenses, he said.
“It would also confirm the quantity of the imports of raw materials and what is exempted from customs. The team would also ascertain that these imported items are being used in production and for making a new product,” he added.
Al Mahrouqi said that the team plans to visit 20 industrial establishments in Muscat, in addition to a number of factories and industries in other governorates.
The team is made up of a number of specialists from authorities concerned with customs clearance for industrial establishments.
These include the directorate general of industry of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, directorate general of customs of the Royal Oman Police and the department of taxes of the Ministry of Finance.
He said that the number of industrial transactions cleared through the Bayan system (ePortal) between January 1 and March 31, 2018 was 1,103. This was in keeping with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries model (B) to obtain exemptions from imports of industrial establishments.
Similarly, the number of applications for exemptions during the same period reached 166. They represented imports of equipment, spare parts and raw materials. The Ministry of Finance has issued 41 orders for custom exemptions in the first quarter of 2018.
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