New $16 per head arrival fee to hit travellers
By Pattrick Smellie
May 21 (BusinessDesk) - Tourists and travellers arriving in New Zealand will face a $16 per head new border clearance
levy from Jan. 1 next year to deal with fast-growing demands on customs and quarantine services.
A $6 departure fee is also mooted under changes that will see travellers rather than taxpayers picking up the cost of
arriving and departing the country.
“The government considers it is fairer for the costs to fall on passengers travelling internationally,” said Primary
Industries and Customs Ministers Nathan Guy and Nicky Wagner in a statement of the $100 million annual cost of
processing border clearances.
“Arriving air passenger volumes have grown by more than 18 percent from 4.4 million in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2014, and
are expected to continue growing at around 3.5 percent each year.
“The levy will ensure our border processes stay fit for purpose into the future.”
Cargo clearance costs are already covered by fees.
The all-up $36 in charges for a return journey compared with Australian charges of around $58 and British charges worth
some $142.
Also announced was a $24.9 million boost to operating funding and $2 million in capital expenditure for biosecurity
services, to improve import health standards, more auditing of other countries’ biosecurity systems, more detector dogs
at the border, and more X-ray machines to speed up passenger clearance.
An additional $4.7 million will be committed to fund more border security officers over the next four years.
(BusinessDesk)