The head of the Department of Customs, Vicente Sanchez Baret says that despite the implementing of the tariff reform bill that calls for reductions in tariffs from a maximum 35 to a maximum 20%, he doesn’t expect his department collections to drop. He told those that were hopeful of paying less import taxes that while the tariffs will go down, the valuation figures will be revised upwards. The rationale for the increasing of taxes as part of the new Tributary Law was to compensate for decline in government income due to the reduction of import tariffs. Now Sanchez Baret says this is not necessarily so. "I cannot affirm there will be a decline in collections as the values are being adjusted, that is that if there has been a substantial underpricing of imported merchandise, now we are proceeding to adjust these to reality; that is, while the tariffs in some cases drop, in others the values of the imported merchandise will go up," he said. The tariff reform bill is effective 11 January, announced Vicente Sanchez Baret, director of Customs.
