PM opened a new customs house in Mauritius

Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam yesterday opened the new state-of-the-art Customs House of the Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) in Mer Rouge. An eight-storey modern building, the new Customs House acts as a one-stop-shop regrouping under one roof the various customs services to facilitate the administrative procedures for a better service. It will enable customs officers to operate in a customer-oriented environment.

The new building is equipped with a CCTV video surveillance system. It's quipped with the latest high-tech tools and cost around Rs234 million but the MRA contributes up to 36% of the government revenue.  Furthermore, a museum tracing the history of the customs has also been set up.

According to figures pointed out by Mr Sudhamo Lal, Director General of the MRA, before the creation of the MRA income tax raked in around Rs32 billion annually but the target for this year has been estimated at Rs52 billion. The Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Mr Pravind Jugnauth, said in a brief statement that the Customs Department will be a close ally of the government in making Mauritius a “duty-free paradise” by 2020.