Australian Customs Compliance Update - Consignee/Consignor definition

13-Jul-2010 We thought this may interest you... In the April edition of the Australian Customs report is the following definition of a consignee / consignor:

Definition of consignee/consignor

In 2009, Customs and Border Protection issued an Australian Customs Notice (ACN) to confirm the reporting and entry requirements for import cargo and to specifically address the issue of consignee/consignor combinations. ACN 2009/47 outlined that cargo reporters engaged to assemble orders of consignments from multiple suppliers need to enter a cargo report in the ICS for each supplier (consignor) and consignee.

However, since ACN 2009/47 was issued, Customs and Border Protection data analysis has still identified many instances of potential non-compliance. It is an offence under section 243V of the Customs Act to provide false and misleading information to Customs and Border Protection. This includes incorrectly reporting consignor/ consignee details or not providing a cargo report. You can be penalised up to $5,500 for each false statement. Compliance Assurance Branch is taking a closer look at compliance with the reporting of  consignor/consignee details by monitoring cargo reports and related import declarations. Where there are concerns of incorrect reporting or where an import declaration is incorrectly made, we will ask for further proof of the consignor and consignee details.

Where a cargo reporter, customs broker or importer is non-compliant, the Compliance Assurance Branch considers a range of responses to improve and, if necessary, enforce compliance. These responses include assessing reporting systems, more intrusive monitoring and cargo interventions to verify reports to goods, and/or penalty action.

For more information... Click here to download the full Compliance Report.

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