Trophy trip-up at Customs

After three weeks of haggling with New Zealand Customs officials, three Dunedin chefs have finally received the trophies and medals they won at a South Pacific culinary competition in Australia last month. Greg Piner and Fifi Leong, both of restaurant Vault 21, and Ken O'Connell, of Bracken, won The Battle of the Pacific title, during a three-day fine foods trade event in Melbourne in mid-September. However, the trio were shocked when they returned to New Zealand, to find the Customs Service wanted them to pay $180 for the release of the package containing the trophy and medals. "They said there was an excise on all trophies and awards, except the Melbourne Cup and the Bledisloe Cup, but there is no monetary value on them. We won them in a competition representing New Zealand, and it's just bizarre," Mr O'Connell said, adding Customs was adamant there is no way they could release the awards until the fee was paid. New Zealand Customs Service external relations manager Helen Keyes said trophies and medals won overseas in a competition were usually exempt of GST, and the comment about the only cups that are duty free coming into New Zealand are the Bledisloe and Melbourne Cup was incorrect. "In this case, it appears that the shipping company has declared the goods as trophies without indicating that they have been won in a competition. This has triggered the standard charges for imported goods," Ms Keyes said, adding Customs was not contacted by the importer or the shipping company. Since learning of the incident, New Zealand Customs had contacted the shipping company to obtain more details of the consignment. As a result, Customs had waived the $127.84 assessed as payable to Customs ($78.64 GST and $49.20 transaction fee), which shouldn't have been assessed in the first place.