Customs Dept blames courier firms for delay Wednesday, 22 February 2012 01:01

DOHA: The customs authorities have hit back at courier companies, saying they are not to blame for delays in parcel deliveries to customers.

Many courier companies do not produce the required documents in time to claim parcels and that is to partly blame for delays in parcel deliveries to customers, says the customs department.

New rules demand that courier firms produce the identity (ID) card of a customer to claim a personal parcel from the customs department, says the department’s chief.

And the value of the content of a personal parcel must not exceed QR3,000 as per the rules of the GCC Customs Union, said Ahmed bin Ali Al Mohannadi.

Many courier companies, after they collect parcels after customs clearance, prefer to sit over them and do not deliver them to their customers quickly, he said.

As for commercial parcels, courier companies need to submit some documents in advance and they include the registration papers of the companies to which a parcel is meant for, for the customs department to verify details.

But many courier service providers make undue delays in submitting these documents, Al Mohannadi told Al Sharq in an interview yesterday.

There are some courier firms that do the paperwork quite efficiently and claim commercial parcels very fast.

Commercial parcels that weigh more than 100kg are sent to the air cargo unit and that might be taking time to be cleared.

If importers strictly follow the customs procedures there wouldn’t be delays in customs clearance at all.

According to the official, approvals from some government agencies are required for customs clearance but the problem is that their offices are open only in the mornings on weekdays and they are closed during weekends and official holidays like Eid, so there are delays in seeking their approval for customs clearance.

The single-window system for customs clearance has been introduced at the Doha Port and plans are afoot to have this facility in other places as well. Once the system is in place, customs clearance of courier parcels would be very quick.

Al Mohannadi said that due to the economic boom and rising population there had been a huge increase in courier business and related imports.

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