THE EDITOR, Sir:
ON FRIDAY, 19 Sept., I returned home to Kingston from a business trip in Atlanta. I had bought a camcorder valued at US$197, and as a returning resident, I am entitled to US$500 purchases duty-free. Upon reaching the Customs Officer, he requested to see the item, asked me to give him a minute and then proceeded to speak with his supervisor in her office.
He returned and told me he was charging me duty and I told him that was wrong as I was entitled to a duty-free allowance. He said I wasn't, as I was not a resident, but a foreigner. At that point I was totally bewildered as I was born in Jamaica and have lived here all my life.
TWO STAMPS
Upon approaching his Supervisor, I recognised her as one of my customers, and she also said she knew me from where I worked. I explained my problem, and she said that I was not a resident. I couldn't believe this, as it states clearly in my passport that I was born in Jamaica. No point I made to her would make her say any different, and she said Immigration had not stamped me as a national. The Immigration Officer easily explained the difference between the two stamps they use: one is a small round one for Nationals, the other is a broad square one on which they write a time stipulation on it, that you are allowed to stay in the island as a visitor.
He showed the Supe the obvious difference and also explained the law that as I had a British passport and was born in a Commonwealth country, I was automatically a naturalised resident.
I told her that in her position she needed to know the difference between the stamps, as she would put more people through unpleasant experiences like what I had to go through, to which she said she did not need to know as "her department is a different one from Immigration". Even though it is obvious that they are related, and that decisions are made by Customs from what Immigration says, she would not admit the need to know the different stamps.
Still not admitting to saying anything wrong, she then told the Customs Officer who had dealt with me (I had to return to him with my form for him to stamp 'No Duty Charged' on it) that it is 'discretionary' whether to charge me duty or not, even though there are absolutely NO grounds on which she could have.
In a nutshell, I spent over one hour of totally wasted time dealing with an ignorant Supervisor who didn't have the decency to apologise for putting me through that experience.
I am, etc.,
CHRIS INGLEDEW
Manager
Ping's Fabrics
76 Marcus Garvey Drive
