Customs Extends Renewal For Productive Input Relief

The renewal process for the Government’s incentive programme for manufacturers, the Productive Input Relief (PIR), has been extended for another six months.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Commissioner of Customs, Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA), Velma Ricketts Walker, said the extension is to help in cushioning the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the productive sector.

“[For] manufacturers who benefit from the Productive Input Relief and who would’ve been due for renewal this year, we have sought to extend that system… so that they are not pressured and they will continue to redeem or reap the benefits under the system,” she said, while addressing an online forum on Wednesday (April 8).

The PIR allows approved manufacturers to import their raw materials, free of certain duties and taxes.

“About 486 manufacturers… benefit from the programme. We have about 30 per cent [for whom]… [the] incentive programme would be expired within this year, and so that is why we thought it necessary for the extension, so that there is no anxiety,” Mrs. Ricketts Walker noted.

She said that customs brokers will also be given some leeway for the renewal of licences.

“They can renew as soon as they have all the supporting documents, because we want business to continue,” she noted.

All licences (Customs Brokers and Provisional) issued under the Customs Regulations expired on March 31, 2020.

Customs brokers would have been required to renew their permit for the April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 licensing period.