ALGIERS – Algeria has recorded 59 currency offenses involving natural persons (travelers) on its territory during the first seven months of 2019, estimated at nearly 122,299 million DA (nearly 1,027 million euros), learned Wednesday APS from the Directorate General of Customs.
By type of currency, seizures amounted, in particular, to 22.209 million Algerian dinars, 114.800 Tunisian dinars, 1.380 million euros, 237.694 US dollars, 190 Swiss francs, 595 Libyan dinars, 26,000 counterfeit notes in US dollars and finally 700,000 bolivars (Venezuelan currency).
For the types of offenses recorded, it is essentially, according to Customs, “misrepresentation, failure to comply with the obligation to report, failure to comply with the prescribed procedures or formalities required, and lack of authorization required or not -respect of the conditions of which they are attached “.
In 2018, the customs services registered 69 foreign exchange offenses for individuals, for an overall value of more than 690.139 million DA (about 5.985 million euros).
These violations resulted in penalties of DA 1.370 billion.
Amounts seized by nature of currencies concerned 19.126 million Algerian dinars, 207.765 Tunisian dinars, 4.586 million euros and finally 459.418 US dollars.
The travelers concerned by these illegal practices are of different nationalities. These include Algerian, Tunisian, Egyptian and Chinese nationalities.
This phenomenon, highly detrimental to the national economy, led the General Directorate of Customs to create, in 2018, a Commission to fight against fraud and the illicit transfer of capital to and from abroad.
This Commission, which is an additional tool to strengthen the fight against fraud and the illicit transfer of capital, is working on a report to be submitted to the authorities concerned, including customs recommendations.
For the same purpose, a monitoring and follow-up committee, responsible for monitoring the evolution of foreign exchange transfers abroad, was recently set up by the Ministry of Finance.
The committee’s mission is to “ensure that the transfer operations in foreign currency by banks, as authorized intermediaries, which are executed in strict compliance with the exchange regulations issued by the Bank of Algeria,” said the Ministry of Finance.
