This article is from page 9 of the 2007-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
FOR the third consecutive year, cus- toms officials at Shannon Airport did not confiscate any goods from pas- sengers arriving in Ireland from the US during the traditional Christmas shopping period.
This is despite an _ estimated 100,000 Irish people travelling to the US, many from Shannon Airport, and spending millions of Euro on Christmas shopping trips in the pe- riod between the start of November and the end of December.
While customs officers carry out random checks at airports as part of their daily duties, passengers stopped at Shannon during November and December did not have any items in excess of their allowance.
Information obtained from the Revenue Commissioners confirmed that the number and value of goods
seized from passengers and pas- sengers’ baggage between Novem- ber | and December 31 at Shannon was “nil”. The number and value of goods released on compromise pen- alties was also “nil”.
The figures revealed that the amount of duty and taxes taken from passen- gers declaring goods on importation was €1,262.66 – made up of €117.15 in duty and €1,145.51 in VAT.
At Dublin Airport, passengers returning from the US during the same period, with “goods lawfully declared”, paid €749 in duty and €3,430 in VAT.
While some items were seized, they were released to their owners follow- ing payment of duties and penalties valued at €1,031.
Passengers are allowed to bring home items worth no more than €175 before they must make a dec- laration.