Editor

In both my personal capacity and in my capacity as the chief executive officer of the Department of Customs, I feel compelled to respond to the comments made by the Chairman of the Rugby League in his letter to the Matangi Tonga on 9 December. His letter, in my view, amounted to a personal attack on my office directly, and indirectly on the good servants of the Revenue Services Department, (including the Honourable Minister), and that does merit a response. However, based upon the facts of the matter, the Chairman can be confident in the knowledge that what occurred to his wine was actually the law of Tonga being rightfully enforced, and not a planned conspiracy against the Tonga Rugby League, as he apparently believes.

The fact of the matter is that the Tonga Rugby League imported wine into Tonga without obtaining the necessary business license to import and retail/wholesale liquor, and in those circumstances the wine is a prohibited import. The Tonga Rugby League must, as would any party importing liquor in such circumstances, face the legal ramifications of that action.

When the Tonga Rugby League subsequently approached the Hon. Minister for Revenue, it was to only seek approval to move the wine from the wharf to store in a customs, licenced warehouse, as they did not have their own bonded facilities. They did not say to the Hon. Minister "we want to import this wine, but we do not have a business licence to do so, and we want to sell this wine but we don't have a licence for that either. And we don't have a liquor licence, but we do have all this wine which we think is fairly valued at A$1 a carton." All those salient points were not provided to the Hon. Minister or the Commissioner of Revenue, none of those facts were revealed. It took the actions of a lesser official, to borrow Mr. Moehau's phrase, to dig that out.

Once that information did come to light, proper legal advice was sought from the Deputy Commissioner of Revenue, Technical Services in regard to the status of the wine. The legal advice received was that as the TRL had no business license to import and retail/wholesale liquor, the wine was a prohibited import. No conspiracy there, only public officials properly following the law. On receipt of the legal confirmation of the prohibited nature of the wine, a seizure notice was completed and handed personally to the Secretary of the Tonga Rugby League, together with a letter advising the TRL of their rights under the law. They had a month in which to lodge an appeal to the Hon. Minister of Revenue against the seizure, which occurred on 14th September. No appeal against the seizure was ever lodged with the Hon. Minister, and as a consequence, on 2nd November the Minister was advised by written memorandum from the Customs Department that the appeal period had lapsed and as such the goods were due for disposal. The Hon. Minister subsequently approved the disposal of the wine.

There was no political influence as suggested, no complaints from industry, no higher authority giving my office courage, and certainly no influence for me to use my position for the benefit of a few. This was due process with all levels of the Revenue Services fulfilling their roles responsibly according to their charter in compliance with the law.

In his letter the Chairman considers the TRL were acting responsibly in that he suggests they would "clear the wines at a pace not to affect the sales and businesses of local wine importers, but only at a scale to inject enough funds to the operations of TRL on a timely basis to secure its purpose". If that was the case, why did he offer in an email to sell the entire consignment to a local retailer explaining that "we do not have the interest to sit with the container, but wish to sell all at once if we can secure a buyer."

I am also compelled to address Mr. Moehau's quite outrageous statement to the effect that I have a favouritism for foreigners and discriminate against Tongans. In response, I would like to draw his attention to the fact that in the last 6 months, Tonga Customs has identified $327,650 of revenue avoided and seized illegally imported goods worth $338,000, all from "foreigners". In fact, this action against the Tonga Rugby League amply demonstrates that Tonga Customs administers the law consistently, without fear or favour and is a perfect example of striving to achieve the "level playing field" in the administration of our duties.

The law is the law. It was duly followed. Nothing more.

Peter Nash
Deputy Commissioner of Revenue - Customs & Trade Division

Editor's Note: The views and opinions expressed in the Matangi Tonga Online do not necessarily reflect those of the Publisher, Matangi Tonga Online and Editors, who neither confirm nor affirm the views expressed by Siosaia Moehau, Chairman of the Tonga Rugby League. Siosaia Moehau's letter of December 9, 2010 represents solely the views of himself.