In February 2022, the Parliament applied certain amendments on the Anti-smuggling of Goods and Foreign Currency Act of 2015 (the Amendment). According to the Amendment, part of slight technical defects in the import documentation that previously had a chance to be deemed as “ineffective mistakes”, would likely constitute a case of “smuggling”. 

Two of most important changes introduced by the Amendment that have togetherly made the previous provisions much more severe from “import documentation” point of view, are as follows:

• from one hand, the Amendment expands the description of “smuggling” from “use of false documents” to “use of false or invalid or expired or repetitious or erroneous or belong to third party or unlawfully gained documents”, and 
• from the other hand, it expands the definition of “erroneous” from “inaccuracy or inconsistency of the kind, quality, quantity or weight” to the “inaccuracy or inconsistency of the kind, quality, quantity, weight or any other specifications”.

According to the aforementioned changes, as apply by the customs authorities, “any inconsistency” between “any specifications” of the imported goods and its relevant import documentation or between the insertions of the import documents themselves, will constitute a case of “smuggling” which is a “crime” to be reported to the courts for their review and deciding. In other words, lot of technical defects that the customs authorities previously identified as “failure” and recognized themselves competent to deal with and resolve (usually closed by payment a penalty), should now be recorded by them and reported to the court as a potential criminal case of “smuggling”.

The reports say that upon legislating the Amendment and serving by the Government the relevant administrative bylaws and directions, the customs authorities have, in spite of their previous practice, preferred to simply send the files to the courts instead of letting the matter to be reviewed and probably solved out via the customs bodies. As a matter of fact, widening the scope of description of “smuggling” by the lawmakers and their entering into the details of technical matters related to the description of the imported goods as set out in the import documents, has left narrow possibilities for having a round of explanation and resolve with the customs officers and appraisers in regard to even insignificant mistakes with no meaningful benefit for the importer. 

In the light of these developments, the wise importers should be very precise either in preparing the import documentation and in handling their imported goods matters before the customs authorities (and before the courts, perhaps). Use of expertise of the customs affairs experts and lawyers familiar to the customs related matters, has now become more essential than ever before. Our team would be happy to have the opportunity of giving you such assistance whenever you need.

 

For more information and advice, please contact us in Tavakoli & Colleagues law firm.