P.K. Abdul Ghafour
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JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia\u2019s Customs Department has urged all incoming and outgoing travelers to declare cash or precious metals worth more than SR60,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaudi Customs reminds all passengers with cash, transferable monetary instruments or precious metals exceeding SR60,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency to declare them to customs officials upon arrival or departure,\u201d the department said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cFailure to make the declaration would subject them to confiscation and the bearer will be liable to legal penalties,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
It said the filling of declaration forms was important in accordance with Article 14 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law. \u201cThose who do not declare the precious metals and jewelry they possess while leaving the Kingdom have to pay customs duty on them on their return,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Declaration forms are available at all of the Kingdom\u2019s entry points, including airports and seaports. Passengers should write their names, passport numbers and addresses in Saudi Arabia. They should also state their country of origin and destination, flight numbers, the type of currency they are carrying, the total amount in Saudi riyals, the value of precious metals in Saudi riyals, their source and the purpose of carrying them.<\/p>\n
The declaration form also asks travelers to state: \u201cI hereby acknowledge that the information declared above is correct and I shall be criminally responsible for any mis-declaration.\u201d The form also warns in red, \u201cnot declaring will expose you to legal questioning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The main purpose of the declaration is to prevent money laundering and terrorist funding. The Kingdom has intensified its efforts to combat money laundering at the national, regional and international levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kingdom is among the first few countries, which gave special attention to counter money laundering by committing to and complying with many rules and international conventions,\u201d said Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Kingdom has adopted new laws to combat money laundering and terror financing, which were enacted in May 2003. The Kingdom has implemented all 40 recommendations regarding money laundering and all eight regarding terror financing of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF).<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia and the United States established a joint task force in August 2003 to deal with terror financing. This task force operates as an integrated unit and brings the resources of both governments together. On Sept. 21-25, 2003, the Kingdom hosted a FATF team to make a joint evaluation on the procedures the Kingdom has taken to combat money laundering and terror financing, and found that Saudi Arabia\u2019s new laws in the area were amongst the strictest in the world.<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
P.K. Abdul Ghafour JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia\u2019s Customs Department has urged all incoming and outgoing travelers to declare cash or precious metals worth more than SR60,000. \u201cSaudi Customs reminds all passengers with cash, transferable monetary instruments or precious metals exceeding SR60,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency to declare them to customs officials upon arrival or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[411],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n