Customs duties are imposed on all goods and shipments imported into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the importer needs to submit the required documents to facilitate the customs clearance process and then receive the goods. The unified customs system applied by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has detailed the stages of customs clearance through which shipments from abroad go through and has established a structured and detailed framework for how the process proceeds. The stages of customs clearance consist of the following three stages:
First Stage: Submission of Documents
When the shipment arrives at its destination, the first stages of customs clearance begin with the start of the process of handling and unloading the goods from the containers, and the customs clearance company – contracted by the importer – begins to play its role by withdrawing the customs delivery permit from the shipping agent, then preparing and preparing this permission, and the company is also preparing an official form for declaring the customs value that is calculated based on the shipment invoices or the so-called “customs declaration”, in addition to any other documents requested by the director of the customs office, and during this stage it is permissible The importer or his representative may take a sample of the goods when needed.
No goods shall be excluded from the submission of the required documents, even if they are exempt from customs duties, and the unified customs system stipulates in article 48 that clearance procedures may be allowed in case of lack of some documents in exchange for a cash or bank guarantee or a written undertaking to bring these documents.
Second Stage: Inspection of Goods
The customs officer records the customs data of the shipment, and then the goods are transported to the place of inspection at the responsibility and expense of their owner, where the inspection and inspection of the goods begins in whole or in part by customs representatives inside the customs office, and in some special cases the inspection may take place outside it, but it does not leave the place of inspection until after the approval of the customs office, and entry into customs warehouses and warehouses is limited to persons allowed by customs to do so, and the owner bears the expense of opening and repackaging packages and all inspection work.
The inspection of the goods at customs shall be carried out in accordance with these controls:
- After the goods are detected and their safety is ascertained, they are valued and their value is estimated, and a specialized committee may undertake the valuation process in some types of goods, which requires more time.
- If, after detection, it is found that there is a deficiency in the contents of the shipment after its arrival from abroad, this deficiency shall be recorded in a receipt report that includes its weight, contents and exact number.
- If the owner of the goods is late in arriving at the time of inspection, Customs may inspect the goods in his absence, if it suspects that the goods are prohibited or contrary to what is stated in the documents submitted.
- Customs may have to take a sample of the goods for analysis by the competent regulatory authorities to verify their type, specifications and compliance with the requirements of laws and regulations, in which case the goods are released only after the result of the analysis appears.
- If the inspection of the goods proves that they are harmful or do not conform to the approved specifications, they are destroyed at the expense of the owner, and may be re-supplied to the exporter.
Third Stage: Payment of Fees and Release
After valuing the goods and calculating their weight and number, customs officials shall determine the required customs duties, even if they differ from the fees contained in the documents submitted by the customs clearance company, as the fees determined by customs officials shall be taken into account in case of conflicting estimates.
This is followed by the customs clearance company paying the value of the customs imposed on the shipment, in addition to any other required fees such as detection and display expenses, and in the next step, the customs officer writes an official receipt in the name of the importer, so that the goods are released and delivered to the importer or his official authorized representative.
The last step in the customs clearance stages is to carry the goods by the internal transport company with which the customs broker agreed, pass through the detection devices, and then leave the port or airport to the importer’s warehouses.
One last question remains: what happens in the event of a dispute between the importer and customs?
As has been shown from the stages of customs clearance that we have dealt with, there may be a discrepancy between the value of the goods presented by the importer in his documents and the value determined by the customs officer after examining and inspecting the goods, and therefore a dispute arises between the competent customs officer and the importer about the value of the goods due to the difference in their type, origin, weight or any other reason.
Such dispute shall be referred to the responsible manager, and if he confirms the decision of the customs officer and agrees to it and the importer does not accept it, the dispute shall escalate to the Director General for dissolution or referral to the Valuation Committee if the dispute continues.
In this case, a committee shall be formed to adjudicate the value, which shall be responsible for resolving the dispute arising between Customs and the importer over the value of the goods.
The importer has the right to submit a grievance against the decision to increase the value of the goods – within 15 days – to the formed committee, and a committee may need to seek the assistance of those with experience in estimating the value of the goods, and then issue its decision by the majority of the members and these decisions are binding, and the importer is informed of them with an explanation of the reason for taking these decisions.
As shown by the stages of customs clearance, the release of goods needs to provide accurate documents necessary for import from abroad, the director of the customs office determines the quality, details and items of these documents, and therefore you need specialized expertise in customs to submit them in full and meet the various required conditions, and for this reason the customs clearance company plays a vital role in the process of releasing the goods.
Get in touch with Border Support Customs Clearance Company, which is characterized by extensive experience and deep knowledge of customs clearance procedures for goods in addition to its ability to deal with regulations, systems, details and any outstanding issues efficiently and expertly.
