When 40 customs officers went on strike during August, leaving only 15 officers to do the work, the CTD collected $6.8 million pa'anga, being $1.2 million more than during the same period last year.

in a Press Release, Sefita Tangi stated that the result was, "encouraging as the department (now Division) is undergoing changes for the better."

Sefita said that the restructuring of the revenue collecting division of the Ministry of Finance was launched in 2000 with the establishment of the Revenue Services Department headed by a Revenue Commissioner, "above the revenue commissioner, is the Chief Commissioner of Revenue, the Minister of Finance," Sefita said.

Under the Revenue Services Department are about six Divisions, including the Customs and Trade Division, the Post Office Division and a Technical and a Legal Division. Sefita said that the divisions are headed by Deputies.

Australian to head Customs

The Chief Deputy for the Customs and Trade Division is an Australian, Ms Lee Deakin who took up her new post on September 1. Lee was made available for Tonga via AusAid, and will be assisted by two assistant deputies, a New Zealander and a Tongan.

Sefita said that the recent accession of Tonga to be a member of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) had opened up the door for Tonga to be a signatory to a number of international conventions, which would then enable Tonga to be part of an international network. He said that since Tonga became a member of the WCO it made it easier to deal with the problem of double invoicing.

The restructuring of the CTD will include the installation of new computers with customized software. Sefita has been encouraging his staff to familiarize themselves with computers, but it has not been easy, "because the officers work their way up through the department, and some of them have been there for years with a set way of doing things which is very hard to change," he said.