Board to issue licences

(1) The Board may issue a customs brokers licence to any applicant who, Customs Brokers and 10 (a) has attained the age of eighteen years or more; (b) is not suffering any mental or physical incapacity; (c) has not been convicted during the five years preceding his application of an offence involving dishonesty, whether in Belize or elsewhere; (d) has satisfied the Board as to his competence and fitness under sections 7 and 12 of this Act. (2) Where a customs clerk applies to the Board for a customs brokers licence, the Board may, on the written recommendation of the Association of Customs Brokers and Customs Clerks, issue to him the customs brokers licence if, (a) his application is in the Form prescribed by Regulations made under this Act; (b) he pays the prescribed fee; (c) he gives and executes a security bond in the sum of one thousand dollars. (3) The Minister may, by Order published in the Gazette, vary the sum of the bond required under subsection (2) (c) of this section, or under subsection (5) of this section. (4) A licence granted under this Act shall expire on the thirty-first day of December in each year, but may be renewed on application and payment of the prescribed fee to the Board. The application and payment for renewal shall not be made Customs Brokers and 11 earlier than twenty-one days before the date of the expiry of the licence. (5) Every holder of a customs brokers licence shall give and execute to the Board a security bond in the sum of five thousand dollars in such form as may be approved by the Board, and in accordance with the Customs Regulation Act, Cap. 49, for the faithful and incorrupt performance of all his functions and duties under the Customs Regulation Act, any other applicable laws relating to customs procedure, and any Regulations made there under. (6) A holder of a customs clerk’s licence who assists any person other than his employer in connection with the entering or clearing of goods or other transactions under the customs laws commits a summary jurisdiction offence and is liable, (a) on first conviction, to a fine of not less than five hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars; (b) on a second or subsequent conviction, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to a fine of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than four thousand dollars. (7) The Chairperson of the Board shall, in January of each year, cause to be published in the Gazette, a notice containing the names, business addresses and telephone numbers of all the holders of customs brokers licences or customs clerks for public general information.