Czech finance minister seeks to boost customs administration’s tax powers

The Czech ministry of finance has lodged a new demand that customs officers are allowed to investigate and pursue a much wider range of tax related crimes.

At the moment, they only have full competence with regard to Valued Added Tax and customs duties. Other tax related cases must be handed over to the police.

A similar attempt to widen the competences of the customs administration was made in 2016 by the then finance minister Andrej Babiš. It failed to win support from other government parties. Babiš is now prime minister and head of the biggest party, ANO.