The highest authority of the country's import and export control body, the General Director of Customs, Mr. Mario Das Neves, in response to an invitation from Aduana News to illustrate issues related to the matter, expressed interesting aspects about the customs policy that he intends to apply in the future, as well as the decisions adopted and those to come. In this regard, he stated that regarding the measures he took upon assuming the DGA, they were those "that the situation required of me, thinking that market conditions had changed and that I soon had to return to Customs the control of what leaves and enters the country. First of all, we must combat an evasion of more than 4000 billion a year, adding that we are making some structural changes by hiring new people but fundamentally trying to rescue those who serve, that is, I am not going to work with those customs officers who are under investigation.
On the other hand, I have already started working on a mobile customs office “that will go from customs office to customs office diagnosing the situation of each one of them and we are going to start with the most questioned ones.”
Regarding the observations that he can make about the control functions, the magistrate pointed out: "I believe that in this case the customs should be provided with new and better control methods with more technology and more training for the staff. I do not want a static body, but quite the opposite." He also explained that "To this end, we are arranging for the immediate operation of the electronic seal and mobile scanners as a first step. And an implicit contract has been renewed with the force that controls the border, which is the Gendarmerie, with which we have initiated several operations and obtained important results in the confiscation of contraband drugs, cigarettes and CDs."
He also said that "we have seized more than 3000 kilos of various drugs and more than a million cigarettes ready to be burned. In Formosa we have already incinerated four million cigarettes seized in 2.001. Also, the exchange rate conditions generated an increase in border trade, for which I made the decision to raise the minimum from 50 pesos to 150 pesos per person in border transit from Argentina to abroad."
Concerned about how to improve control management, the director said: "It improves over time, something we do not have, and by making the changes I mentioned earlier, without forgetting that we also have to make some decisions regarding avoiding under-invoicing of export items now, since the devaluation changed the way evasion occurs."
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
