Businesses who import goods from overseas have been urged to use electronics options as they declare their goods . . . or pay a price.

Government announced today that the Customs Department will levy a manual data inputting fee if the declaration is submitted on paper. That fee will be charged to the declarant at a rate of sixty cents per record on each Bermuda Customs Declaration (BCD) submitted.

And the fees could be substantial for some large importers landing different types of items, explained a Government press release.

They will be levied by way of a direct charge to the importer’s duty account.

The new regulation will come into effect in the fall.

First raised during the Budget Debate in March by Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance Bob Richards, the fee is not a revenue raising measure, added the release.

“It is an incentive to declarants of imported goods to file electronic submissions. The fees offset the considerable cost in overtime to the Customs Department of manually inputting the data into the Customs Automated Processing System (CAPS).

“Importers may submit electronic BCDs () by filing to CAPS via the Customs File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site or by entering declaration data using the browser-based “Webtrader” facility offered by the Customs Department.

“File transfers through the Customs FTP site require the in-house development, or the off-the-shelf purchase, of software. The Webtrader service is completely free of charge.”

More information can been found by contacting The Customs Department by mail, visiting Customs House on Front Street or contacting the CAPS Helpdesk Section of The Customs Department: capshelpdesk@gov.bm (Tel: 278-7446).