Customs and Excise Act 1996

145 Questioning persons about goods and debt

• (1) This section applies to—

  • (a) any person who—

    • (i) has within the preceding 72 hours arrived in New Zealand; or

    • (ii) is departing from New Zealand; or

  • (b) any person, not being a person to whom paragraph (a) applies, who is within a Customs controlled area licensed for—

    • (i) the temporary holding of imported goods for the purposes of the examination of those goods under section 151 (including the holding of the goods while they are awaiting examination); or

    • (ii) the disembarkation, embarkation, or processing of persons arriving in or departing from New Zealand; or

    • (iii) the processing of craft arriving in or departing from New Zealand or the loading or unloading of goods onto or from such craft; or

  • (c) any person, not being a person to whom paragraph (a) applies, who is on board or is in the process of embarking onto or disembarking from a craft that has arrived from, or is departing to, a point outside New Zealand, while the craft is within New Zealand.

  (2) A Customs officer may question a person to whom this section applies as to any 1 or more of the following matters:

  • (a) whether or not that person has or has had in that person's possession any dutiable, prohibited, uncustomed, or forfeited goods:

  • (b) the nature, origin, value, ownership, or intended destination of any goods of that kind:

  • (c) whether, under this Act, any debt (for example, in respect of any duty, duty refunded in error, recovery of the drawback of any duty, or penalty) is due to the Crown and payable by the person, or by a company, trust, partnership, or other enterprise of which that person is or was a director, manager, secretary, officer, or agent:

  • (d) the nature and extent of the debt (if any) of that kind.

  Compare: 1966 No 19 s 212(1), (1A); 1994 No 100 s 7

  Section 145 heading: amended, on 2 July 2004, by section 25 of the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 2004 (2004 No 55).

  Section 145(2): substituted, on 9 October 2002, by section 10 of the Customs and Excise Amendment Act (No 2) 2002 (2002 No 31).