Customs' big year sets $8.4b record

Nanaia Mahuta

Customs collected a record $8.4 billion in the past year, its annual report shows.

The border-control agency was also more active in other areas, stopping several large drug shipments and making almost 2000 investigations into suspected offending - 60 per cent more than usual.

The report, issued yesterday, said revenue in the year to June exceeded Treasury forecasts, and was $664 million higher than the year before.

The bulk of the money - about $5 billion - came from GST on imported goods.

Excise tax contributed $2.23 billion. Of that, tax on fuel contributed $884 million, tobacco tax $834 million and alcohol tax $516 million.

Customs duties were worth $1.08 billion.

Customs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the high indirect tax take was one of the department's main achievements.

"The service continues to be an important source of revenue for New Zealand, helping drive economic transformation."

The report said the money - about 15 per cent of the total tax take - made an important contribution to the Government's social and economic programmes.

The report shows Customs made 1976 investigations in the year well above the 1085 to 1200 investigations deemed "normal".

Among those investigations were some high-profile busts.

In January, Customs officers detected 8.1kg of crystal methamphetamine, worth about $8 million, concealed in factory-wrapped water filters from China.

At the time, it was New Zealand's biggest seizure of the drug.

In May, that was overtaken by a Customs and police seizure of separate shipments of methamphetamine and the precursor drug pseudoephedrine with a combined value of $135 million.

In January, Customs also seized 200 litres of gamma Butyrolactone, known as GBL.

The drug is popular in nightclubs, and has reportedly been used in date rapes.

The report said other notable achievements were the establishment of a national targeting centre to improve intelligence gathering and identification of risks, and the establishment of new posts in Beijing and Washington.

Customs also has posts in Sydney, Bangkok and Brussels.

- NZPA