Section 17: Powers of Director-General over documents

17. Powers of Director-General over documents (1) (a) Where information has been received by the Director-General, or the Director-General has reason to believe, that goods have been smuggled, under-declared, unlawfully entered or illegally dealt with, or that it is intended to smuggle, under-declare, unlawfully enter or deal illegally with any goods, or where any goods have been seized or detained, the importer or exporter shall, immediately on being requested so to do by the Director-General, produce and hand over to the Director-General all books, invoices and documents relating to those goods or to any other goods imported or exported by him at any time within the 3 years immediately preceding the date of such request. (b) The importer or exporter shall also produce for the inspection of the Director-General, and permit him to make copies of, or take extracts from, all books or documents of any kind, including price lists, bank drafts, orders, letters of credit, invoices, wherein any entry or memorandum appears, in any way, to relate to any such goods. (2) Any person, not being the importer or exporter, who has in his possession or custody any books, invoices or documents referred to in subsection (1) shall produce such books, invoices or documents to the DirectorGeneral on demand. (3) Notwithstanding any other enactment, subsection (2) shall apply to brokers, commission agents, manufacturers’ representatives, commodity syndicates, and to other commercial enterprises and parastatal bodies, as the case may be. (4) Any person who refuses or neglects to comply with a request of the Director-General under this section, and any person who produces any false book, invoice or document or makes any false representation in regard to the country in which any goods were grown, produced or manufactured or processed, or makes any false representation with the intent to contravene this section, shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding 200,000 rupees and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 4 years. [Issue 9] C62 – 16 (4) Revised Laws of Mauritius (5) For the purpose of subsection (4), an invoice which is drawn in a fictitious name or in the name of a person other than the specified importer of the goods shall be deemed to be a false invoice. [S. 17 amended by s. 6 (b) of Act 10 of 1998 w.e.f. 21 July 1998; s. 5 (c) of Act 18 of 1999 w.e.f. 31 July 1999; s. 8 (b) of Act 14 of 2009 w.e.f. 30 July 2009; s. 11 (f) of Act 18 of 2016 w.e.f. 7 September 2016.]