Consulting on border levies for travellers

Joint consultation on levies for travellers

The New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are undertaking public consultation on proposed changes to Border Processing Levy charges which travellers pay to cross New Zealand’s border.

The levies will change on 1 December 2024.

What is being consulted on

Public consultation is on:

• proposed new levy rates for six border processing levies
• setting new caps for Customs’ four levies (that reflect the proposed new levy rates)
• deciding when the next levy period will finish.

Key changes proposed

For a traveller arriving and departing by air or by sea (but not on a cruise ship), the following are the changes in the proposed levies

For a traveller arriving and departing by cruise ship, the following are the changes in the proposed levies

Proposed levy rates to apply from 1 December 2024

MPI’s two levies will remain the same as the current rate:

• Arriving air travellers and sea travellers not arriving by cruise ship would pay $16.92.
• Arriving cruise ship travellers would pay $10.58.

Three of the four Customs’ levies would be lower than currently:

• Arriving air travellers and sea travellers not arriving by cruise ship would pay $$14.17.
• Departing air travellers and sea travellers not departing by cruise ship would pay $3.45.
• Departing cruise ship travellers would pay $2.31.

If you combine the two reductions, arriving and departing air travellers and sea travellers not departing by cruise ship see a reduction of $3.49.

One of the Customs’ levies would increase:

• Arriving cruise ship travellers would pay $21.54.

If you combine Customs’ proposed increased levy rate on arriving cruise ship travellers with the proposed reduction in the levy rate for departing cruise travellers, the net increase would be $7.82.

We also propose to reset the date for the next border processing levies review to the middle of the year, so the next change would occur on 1 July 2027 (rather than on 1 December).

What the levies are used for

All passengers arriving in New Zealand are assessed for risk before they arrive, whether they are travelling by air or sea. On arrival a range of methods are also used to further screen travellers, such as use of Customs and Biosecurity detector dogs, questioning by Customs or MPI officers, and x-ray and manual searches of baggage.

Border Processing Levy charges are required to recover the costs of these services.

Correction to Table 3

Table 3 in the consultation document contains an error. The annual cost figures for levy two are wrongly listed as applying to levy three, and vice versa (i.e. the cost figures were transposed). This is solely an error of presentation in this table. None of the other tables or analysis, including all the proposed levy rates or proposed caps, are affected.

Table 3 should look as outlined below (with the corrected figures shaded).

Having your say

Consultation is open for public submissions until 9:00am on 9 August 2024:

By email to - consultingonfeesandlevies@customs.govt.nz

By post to – Consultation: Recovering the costs of border processing services

                     New Zealand Customs Service

                     PO Box 2218

                     Wellington 6140

Further details are in:

• Recovering the Costs of Border Processing Services (PDF, 7 MB)  consultation document
• Biosecurity (Border Processing Levy) Order 2015 (LI 2015/259) (as at 25 November 2021) Contents – New Zealand Legislation
• Customs and Excise (Border Processing Levy) Order 2015 (LI 2015/262) (as at 25 November 2021) Contents – New Zealand Legislation