Abandoned containers opened by Customs
The Ministry of Finance, through the Directorate General for Customs, identified eighteen containers that were abandoned for over six months and less than one year, at Dili port.
Out of the eighteen abandoned containers, nine of them were opened by the authorities on October 8th. The remaining ones will be investigated in a near future. The opened containers were again sealed by Customs services, and shall remain like this while the proceedings are taking place.
According to the Director-General of Customs, José Abílio, it is up to Customs - under the Law No. 9 - the competence to carry out the identification of unclaimed and abandoned containers in the port. According to the Customs Code, it is for Customs to order the opening of immobilized containers in the port for more than 60 days and to investigate its content: “A stationary container with no owner raises suspicions on what it may contain”, declared José Abílio.
The legal proceedings regarding the opened containers, include the identification of the term for products contained packed therein, before being sent to auction. The expired products should be destroyed.
“It is an opportunity to warn the public, especially the importers, in order to observe the law, when seeking to enter the business of imports. The import of merchandise cannot be done in a careless way, because one runs the risk of being exploited by illegal importers," warned the Director-General of Customs.
According to the Head of Department of APORTIL, Zonas Alves, the institution has always maintained a good coordination and cooperation with Customs, in order to detected abandoned containers and to pursue measures to safeguard the products contained therein.
The containers already searched contain vehicles, auto parts, furniture, office supplies, unsealed rolls of electric cables, boxes with technological components of Vietnamese origin, and one of them was empty.
Attending the opening of the containers, at the invitation of the Customs Service, were representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Ministry of Health, Quarantine Services and from the port of Dili.
