AMPS | How Would This Affect Your Bottom Line?
What Does AMPS Mean?
If you are an importer and exporter of goods into Canada, it is in your best interest to know what AMPS are. Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS) are monetary penalties issued by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to ensure customs compliance. Both imports and exports of goods are subject to AMPS.
Carriers, importers, exporters and customs brokers (and many others that deal with the Customs Act and Customs Tariff) are all held accountable on errors and can be subject to costly AMPS penalties. The penalty can be anywhere from $100.00 to $25000.00. Another term for a "mistake" is non-compliance or an even scarier term - Contravention.
Customs compliance has become one of the new buzz words in the last ten years in the Transportation Industry. Judging by the amount of penalties that have been assessed over the years, it is in your best interest to make sure you are compliant when it comes to importing/exporting goods. The other buzz word is "Reason to Believe" and that means if you think you made a mistake fix it and fix it as soon as possible.
Recently, the Canadian Society of Customs Brokers(CSCB) sent out one of their regular emails and this one was on AMPS Statistics. Are you ready to be shocked? This is for the period of July 2008 to June 2011:
- during this period, the total number of penalties issued was 93,808;
- during this period, the total value of penalties was $21,371,433.94;
- importers continue to have the highest number of penalties assessed;
- the penalty amount assessed against importers is twice that of carriers and six times that of warehouse operators;
- the penalty assessed the most often was C082 (27,785), followed closely by C353 (27,443); and
- the contravention for which the highest amount was assessed is C358 ($2,043,846.18).
How to Appeal An ACI eManifest AMPS Penalty
Code Definitions And Penalties:
- C082: Authorized person failed to make the required corrections to a declaration of tariff classification within 90 days after having reason to believe the declaration was incorrect (penalty range $150 up to $450 per instance).
- C353: Authorized person failed to pay duties as a result of required corrections to the declaration of the value for duty within 90 days of reason to believe the declaration was incorrect (penalty range $150 up to $450 per instance).
- C358: Person removed goods from a Customs Office or Sufferance Warehouse prior to release or authorization by an officer (penalty range $1000 up to $4000 per shipment).
We suggest that you cross your t's and dot your i's to ensure compliance with Canada Customs and Other Government Departments (OGDs) when you import and export.
To learn more, attend as many Trade Compliance Seminars as possible. It is also a cost effective way to train new logistics employees. Not only will you gain the trade knowledge needed but you can rest easy that you are staying informed with the ever changing regulations with Customs and other government departments. Be prepared because if not, you can lose your ability to import. Remember importing is a privilege not a right.
Hefty AMPS Penalties For ACI eManifest Non-Compliance
