Sir, – As Christmas approaches, we are once again faced with the inexplicable practice of applying customs charges to ordinary gift packages coming from outside the EU.
Let’s leave aside, for a moment, the outrageousness of wresting money out of recipients of what could be as humble as a home-made gift from a relative living abroad.
What makes this utterly unacceptable is that the paltry limit on the value of the package (currently €45) above which customs charges apply, includes the value of the postage – a cost which has already been paid by the sender!
If a package is coming from a country like the US, which has very high postage charges, that renders this limit almost meaningless.
There is no rational justification for a recipient having to pay customs charges to receive any gift (possibly even a gift they may not have been expecting), paying not only for the gift itself but for postage already paid.
This is a relatively new thing. It was brought in by the EU only in the last few years – no doubt to take advantage of the increased packages sent during Covid. Customs levied on goods and services are one thing. Charging people to receive packages from relatives, including family items or Christmas presents, is quite another.
The Government should go back to the EU and strongly push for this practice to be abandoned.
For the present, I have asked my relatives living abroad not to send me any more packages. If this isn’t corrected by next year, I recommend others do the same. – Yours, etc,
JESSICA FREED,
Dublin 2.