Sudanese Customs

Sudanese Customs is the government authority responsible for monitoring the movement of goods and people through the country's land, sea and air ports of entry, and for collecting the customs duties and taxes due on imports and exports.

Before the Customs Administration was established in 1905, duties were collected under an agency system, under which the directors of the directorates collected duties and taxes and remitted the proceeds to the Financial Secretary. When the administration was established in 1905, it became independent of the Finance Department, and Captain Hayes Sadler was appointed its first director; he began his work at the start of January 1906 and drew up a plan to establish customs stations and develop the work, and seventeen centres were established, including Suakin, Wadi Halfa, Port Sudan, Khartoum, Kassala, Gedaref and others.

The legislative framework for customs work developed through successive laws, including the law of 1913 and then the law of 1939, culminating in the Customs Law of 1986. Sudan joined the Customs Co-operation Council in 1960, which later became the World Customs Organization, and since 1992 Customs has used the ASYCUDA computerized system to process trade documents at its main offices.

The tasks of Customs rest on four main objectives documented in its literature: a financial objective of imposing and collecting customs taxes and feeding the public treasury with revenues; an economic objective of implementing the state's trade and industrial policies and regulating the movement of exports and imports; a social objective of preventing the entry of prohibited and restricted goods and protecting society; and a sovereign objective of monitoring the movement of goods and people through entry and exit points. Its competences also include combating smuggling in all its forms, providing statistical data on foreign trade, and applying the bans and restrictions imposed on imports and exports. Customs works today as a regular force within the police forces, and its stations are spread across seaports, airports and border crossings.

(Sources: Official website of Sudanese Customs, customs.gov.sd; Sudan Encyclopedia — entry on Sudanese Customs; United Nations, UNSD Statistics Division — Sudan's presentation on customs procedures and foreign trade statistics; ReliefWeb — Sudan Customs Report)

— Editorial Team