The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee has released a report on the Customs and Excise Bill, recommending that the bill be passed with amendments.

The bill would replace the Customs and Excise Act 1996, which has been extensively amended. A Government review which began in 2013 considered that the 1996 Act was too prescriptive, difficult to understand and apply, and created unnecessary compliance costs.

The bill would replace the Act to implement the conclusions in the review. The new legislation would be used to manage the movement of people and goods into and out of New Zealand.

The objectives of the bill include to balance the protection of New Zealand with individuals' rights, to provide transparent and easy-to-use legislation, to enable businesses and Customs to quickly adopt future changes in technology and business practice, to facilitate greater information sharing between Customs and other agencies, and improving assurance over the collection of revenue.

The bill was referred to the committee on 6 December 2016 with submissions closing on 10 February 2017. There were 30 submissions and the committee heard from 17.