The Customs Authority Agrees to Operate Transparently

 Gil Nadel, Adv.
 
For the first time, the state has involved the Supreme Court that she is willing to set up a database of customs classifications and import legalities. This is to enable importers and customs agents to receive available and updated information. This notice to the court is signed by the Senior Deputy Attorney General.
 
This development happened in the framework of an appeal filed by the State on the District Court of Jerusalem, discussing the action of the “Pharma Guri” company, an importer of “Rescue Remedy” products, for refund of overpaid taxes. Via our offices, Pharma Guri requested that the court give a writ instructing the Customs Authority to reveal information regarding the classifications under which other importers classified similar products, and also to give examples of other items that are classified under certain customs items, and the District Court accepted this request.
 
In the course of the proceedings before the Supreme Court, the court raised certain ideas to solve the dispute, while noting that any decision in a certain direction may have implication beyond this specific appeal.
 
Following the discussion in the Supreme Court, the State formulated a direction with great importance for the community of importers and customs agents, according to which transparency will be increased for decisions about goods classification. “The State is working to advance a legislative amendment that will allow it to publish preliminary decisions reached by the Customs Agency. If the amendment is accepted, it will constitute a significant contribution to the transparency of the Customs Agency’s decisions on classification issues”, the State wrote in its notice to the court.