The Customs Authority, is the official name of the Customs administration service of Timor-Leste. It is the organization from which the Government of Timor-Leste controls what comes in, and what goes out of the country, including people, goods and vehicles, ships and aircrafts. It is an important source of revenue and helps to secure the nation’s borders.
Article 2(1) of Decree Law 2/ 2020, states that the Customs Authority is an administrative service of the State, endowed with administrative autonomy. Furthermore, Article 2(2) of Decree Law 2/ 2020 states that the Customs Authority works in direct dependence of the member of Government responsible for the area of finance. In other words, we report hierarchically to the Minister of Finance, and we only have autonomy over our administrative functions.
We are responsible for:
- Helping the government collect revenue in a fair and transparent way
- Making our procedures more efficient
- Bringing our activities in line with international standards
- Stopping major losses in revenue caused by inefficiency
- Attracting investment in Timor-Leste by making it easier for businesses to import and export goods
- Facilitating regional and international trade
- Securing Timor-Leste’s borders and stopping illegal goods from entering the country.
We help the government to control the movement of people, goods, vehicles, ships and aircraft that enter and exit Timor-Leste.
We help the government to collect revenue, generate important trade data, facilitate trade between Timor-Leste and other nations, and combat trafficking and other illegal activities:
Customs administrations around the world play a key role in trade facilitation, revenue collection, community protection and natural security. As such, a lack of integrity in Customs can distort trade and investment opportunities, undermine public trust in government administration and ultimately jeopardize the well-being of all citizens. Integrity is a prerequisite for the proper functioning of any effective Customs administration.
We are guided by four core values, namely: Integrity, Professionalism, Transparency and Respect.
We are governed by five principles, namely: Legality; Reducing bureaucracy; Administrative decentralization; Organizational flexibility; and Valuing human resources.
The purpose of the Customs Authority Strategic Plan, is to set out a clear vision for modernizing our administration over the next five years (2021-2025). The plan is guided by our four core values, namely, Integrity, Professionalism, Transparency and Respect. This plan explains how we will improve our performance in each of our core values in efforts to become a high performing and productive organization. In addition, the plan positions the organization to meet our legal obligations in accordance with key laws and regulations.