Customs Ordinance [New Version]

Licensed warehouses may be of two types:

In respect of goods intended for warehousing, a customs officer shall, upon their landing or at the first practicable opportunity thereafter, draw up a detailed list and record it in a register prepared for that purpose.

Where goods approved for warehousing have been duly deposited in a warehouse, the customs officer shall confirm, in the manner to be prescribed by Regulations, that the warehousing has been completed.

Goods approved for warehousing shall be deposited in the packing in which they were imported; however, goods that have been repacked on the quay shall be deposited in the packing in which they were contained at the time of submission of the import declaration in respect of them.

A holder of a warehouse licence shall –

Every customs officer shall have access at all reasonable times to every part of every warehouse and shall be empowered to examine the goods contained therein, and for that purpose may require the licence holder to give him entry to the warehouse; if the licence holder has not done so, the collector of customs may break open the warehouse or any premises that must be passed through in order to secure access.

A customs officer may re-measure, re-weigh or re-examine warehoused goods, whether pursuant to the directions of the collector of customs or at the request of the owner of the goods and at his expense, and customs duty shall be paid according to the results, unless there is reasonable ground to suppose that any of the deficiency or difference discovered was caused by unfair means.

In respect of dutiable goods warehoused in a licensed warehouse, the customs duty thereon shall be paid within one year from the day they were first warehoused, unless the Director has authorised their warehousing for a longer period; if the customs duty has not been paid within the said time, the goods may be sold and the proceeds of sale shall be dealt with as prescribed; if the goods are, in the opinion of the Director, perishable, the Director may sell them even before the expiry of the said period.

The collector of customs may require the owner of goods in a private warehouse to remove them therefrom to a general warehouse within a time that he has prescribed, or to pay the customs duty thereon; if the requirement has not been complied with, the collector of customs may sell them and deal with the proceeds of sale as prescribed.

Where warehoused goods have been removed from the warehouse without authority, or have not been produced to the customs officer when he required it, and no explanation satisfactory to the collector of customs has been given in respect of them – the licence holder of the warehouse shall pay all the customs duty on those goods and, in addition to the customs duty, a sum of five pounds for every package or parcel that was removed or not produced, or double the customs duty.

Where a deficiency is found in one of the packages of goods that were imported and warehoused, and the deficiency cannot be attributed to natural wastage or other legitimate cause, the holder of the warehouse licence shall be liable, upon written demand by the collector of customs, to pay double the customs duty applicable to the quantity or value of the goods as first warehoused.

It shall be permitted to authorise the removal of warehoused goods from the warehouse without payment of customs duty for the purpose of their public display or a similar purpose, for a period and in quantities approved by the Director, provided that security is given for the return of the goods or for the payment of the customs duty.

A collector of customs may permit an importer to take modest quantity samples from warehoused goods without submitting an import declaration, and — save for the customs duty that may ultimately be payable on the deficiency from the quantity originally warehoused — also without payment of customs duty.

A collector of customs may authorise the owner of warehoused goods, or a person who has control over them, to sort, separate, pack and repack them, and to carry out all lawful alterations, arrangements and sortings necessary for their preservation or for preparing them for sale, dispatch and any other lawful dealing therein; and he may also authorise the destruction, without payment of customs duty, of any portion of the goods so separated that is not worth the customs duty chargeable thereon.

Warehoused goods that are dutiable ad valorem and have deteriorated during warehousing may, at the request of the owner of the goods, be re-valued, and the customs duty shall be paid according to the result, provided that the collector of customs is satisfied that the deterioration occurred by accident.

Where goods that have been warehoused, goods in respect of which an import declaration for warehousing has been submitted, or warehoused goods in respect of which a declaration as referred to in section 91(a) has been submitted, have been lost or destroyed owing to an unavoidable event, whether whilst on a vessel, or during their transfer, unloading or receipt into the warehouse, or whilst inside the warehouse, the Director may waive the customs duty chargeable thereon or refund the customs duty paid thereon, in whole or in part.

Where warehoused goods in respect of which a declaration as referred to in section 91(a)(2) or (3) has been submitted, and in respect of which a permit has been granted, have been lost or destroyed owing to an unavoidable event, whether during delivery or during loading, the Director may waive the customs duty chargeable thereon or refund the customs duty paid thereon, in whole or in part.

Goods that have been approved for warehousing, including goods in respect of which a declaration as referred to in section 91(a)(3) (in this section — the first declaration) has been submitted and a permit has been granted in respect thereof, and in respect of which, before they were warehoused, a declaration as referred to in section 91(a)(1) to (3) was submitted, shall be deemed to be goods warehoused in accordance with the first declaration.

The Director may, by Order, determine that a licensed warehouse shall become a customs warehouse, subject to any condition specified in the Order.

All fees shall be paid before the removal of the goods.

Goods that have been approved for warehousing in a customs warehouse and have not been lawfully removed therefrom within one year from the date of their warehousing may be sold by the collector of customs.

The Director may refuse to permit the delivery of goods deposited in a customs warehouse until he has received satisfactory evidence that the freight and handling charges applicable to those goods have been paid.

The Government may, by Order, prohibit, restrict or regulate the exportation of goods or of a class of goods from Israel, or from a territory or place within Israel, whether by land, by sea or by air, and may in such Order specify the goods or class of goods, either generally or specifically, and may also prohibit, restrict or regulate therein the exportation to any destination or to a specific country or specific place.

No person shall export goods the exportation of which is prohibited.

No person shall export goods the exportation of which is restricted or regulated at that time under this Ordinance or under any other legislation in force, except in accordance with the restrictions and regulations applicable to them.

The collector of customs may require the owner of goods to submit to him any certificate or document relating to goods in respect of which an export declaration has been submitted. If the goods are dutiable goods, the collector of customs may require the owner of goods to furnish security that the goods will be landed or delivered at the place stated in the declaration, or that an explanation concerning them will be given to the satisfaction of the collector of customs.

Goods that have been warehoused, or in respect of which drawback is intended to be claimed, or that are to be shipped, may not be exported in a vessel whose capacity is less than sixty registered tons.

Goods subject to customs authority supervision that are intended for export by sea or for coastwise carriage, as well as goods in respect of which drawback is intended to be claimed, shall not be loaded onto a ship except directly from a quay or other approved place, or after having been brought directly therefrom to the ship by a licensed boat or licensed lighter.

The master of a ship shall not sail with his ship from any port without having received a clearance certificate from the collector of customs.

Where a ship has sailed from a port in Israel without stopping at the stations designated by the Director for the landing of customs officers or for the carrying out of a further pre-departure examination, the master shall pay twenty pounds; where the ship sailed from a port or other place while a customs officer or other government employees were on board and the sailing was without their consent, the master shall pay one hundred pounds.

Before a clearance certificate is issued, the master or owner of the ship shall submit a proper outward report as prescribed, shall answer questions concerning the ship, its cargo, crew, passengers, stores and voyage, and shall present documents in relation to the ship and its cargo; and if the vessel is of less than 300 registered tons, he shall submit an exit manifest to the customs officer.

Subject to the provisions of section 111, the master, owner or agent of the ship is required to submit the exit manifest to the collector of customs within 24 hours after completion of clearance, or within such later time as the Director may permit.

The master shall not permit goods that were not listed or not mentioned in the exit manifest to be loaded onto the ship, except after the conditions prescribed in section 103 have been fulfilled; this provision does not apply to passengers' accompanied baggage.

A clearance certificate shall not be issued to a ship unless a proper explanation, to the satisfaction of the collector of customs, has been given in respect of its cargo and stores brought from foreign ports, and unless all other legal requirements relating to the ship and its inward and outward cargo have been duly fulfilled.

When a ship is sailing from a port, its master, if required to do so, shall stop the ship at the boarding station designated for that port and shall facilitate by every reasonable means the embarkation of a customs officer onto the ship; and for so long as a customs officer is on board the ship in the performance of his duties, the master shall not sail the ship from the port without the customs officer's consent.

The master of a ship after clearance is required —

Goods that have been loaded for export, whether by sea, land or air, may not be unloaded except with the permission of the collector of customs.

The exporter is required, if so required by the Director, to submit a certificate from the chief customs officer at the port of destination, as proof that goods that were subject to customs authority supervision were duly landed at that port in accordance with the export declaration; and the collector of customs may refuse to permit that exporter to export other goods subject to customs authority supervision if the exporter has not produced, within a reasonable time, the certificate of landing in respect of goods previously exported, or has not given an explanation in respect of the goods to the satisfaction of the collector of customs.