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Press Release
Extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of January 11th, 2018
The Government met in the Government Palace in Dili to hold an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers, at the request of the Minister of Planning and Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, to discuss a single item: Government Resolution on deferral of payment of customs duties and other taxes on goods donated to the State and acquired by the State until the entry into force of the 2018 General State Budget. At the moment, there are nineteen (19) containers with goods donated to the State and acquired by the State of Timor-Leste during previous Governments, namely three with medications, on which outstanding customs duties are applied and required to be paid in order to enable their respective customs clearance. Given that the 2018 General State Budget has not yet been approved by the National Parliament, it is therefore necessary to approve the deferral of the payment of customs duties until the next General State Budget enters into force.
Therefore, the Customs Authority will calculate the amounts owed, notifying the ministries of the outstanding debt to be settled before the customs clearance of the respective goods. The deferral of the payment of customs duties decided in said Government Resolution shall not take effect until thirty (30) days after the entry into force of the next General State Budget, the date on which the ministries are obligated to settle the debt amounts.
The Government Resolution was unanimously approved and entered into force on the day following the date of its publication. ENDS