According to a ruling of the High Court of Justice on Wednesday, the Israeli customs office will begin checking packages that are shipped via the Israeli Postal Service in the same fashion that they check packages brought through private couriers.
The decision to change the status quo of operations came about due to a petition that was received by the High Court of Justice by various customs agents and trade agencies who have claimed that there is discrimination against private companies and that the post office is being shown favoritism because they bring in the vast majority of imported packages to Israel.
While private companies have to declare the cost of 100 percent of the packages that they deliver to Israel and employ staff to make sure packages make it through customs in order to do so, the post office needs to only declare a sample of the packages that they import and they do not have staff to make sure the packages get processed properly, rather customs processes the packages for them. The petition claims that the county is giving packages imported through the post office a fast-track to enter the country.
If the packages are checked then Israeli consumers will pay taxes and import fees on a lot more items than they are currently doing now.
The Post Office responded to the Israeli media and said: “The Post Office has been working with Israeli Customs Agencies for a long time and there exist working guidelines and procedures that are already in play and are effective. The change is a long time in coming and was in place before the petition was filed to the High-Court of Justice.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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