Located in Florida The fact that Tammy Levent was required to pay a fee of around $200 for taking her iPad and laptop through customs at Cancun International Airport on a business trip in June was something she could never have anticipated.
Cancun is a place that Levent is familiar with due to his profession as an entrepreneur in the travel sector and as the owner of Elite Travel Management Group. Over the course of the last 10 years, she has been there for business an average of two to three times each year, often bringing in novice travel agents for the purpose of educating them.
At the time that Levent arrived at the airport this time, she was carrying a carry-on bag in addition to two luggage that were checked in. While she was going through customs, she was sent to one of the tables where an official would inspect her bags. “You can’t have both,” the agent told her, as she related the incident. The agent then brought out her iPad and laptop. She said that these gadgets had always been carried along with her in the past, but this was the very first occasion that it had been a problem.
Cancun International Airport is the busiest airport in Mexico, with over 13 million people passing through it yearly and 500 aircraft departing from it every single day. It serves as the entrance to the most visited city in Mexico for tourists.
It is possible that many of these passengers are unaware of the fact that Mexican customs laws only permit one portable computer per foreign arrival, which includes both laptops and tablets. This is in contrast to the situation in the United States, where there is no restriction on the number of computers that may be brought on board. Under the Baggage and Passenger Allowance section of the country’s General Rules for Foreign Trade, passengers who do not comply with the aforementioned regulations are subject to taxes that may reach up to 19% of the device’s deemed worth, which can be as high as $4,000.
As a result of the agent’s perception that her iPad, which is of an older vintage, is worth far more than it really is, Levent’s fine was significantly more than she believed to be appropriate. As she reflected on her experience, she said, “This was wrong.”
“At the end of the day, you want tourism but you’re driving people away,” according to Levent. “You have huge companies like pharmaceutical companies… (bringing bring groups in) and they’re coming with laptops and iPads.”
Cancun Airport is imposing fines on passengers who are found to be in possession of several electronic gadgets.
It is not a brand-new legislation. “a portable computer equipment known as laptop, notebook, Omnibook, or similar,” according to the list provided by Mexican Customs, is permitted for travelers from other countries to carry with them. Those travelers who do not pay the 19% tax on additional portable computers will have their devices taken away from them.
“This has in fact been in effect for a very, very long duration,” Michael Boguslavskiy, a travel agent with Caballeros Vacations who specialized in vacations to Cancun, said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It’s a massively outdated list at this point but it’s still there.” (For instance, if individuals continue to travel with DVDs, you are only allowed to carry in a maximum of ten of them.)
As reported by the Riviera Maya News, there has been a significant increase in the number of instances in which customs actually enforced the law and charged travelers.
“It was never aggressively enforced but now they are implementing it harder than they ever have before,” Boguslavskiy told reporters.
In response to USA TODAY’s request for comment, the Cancun Customs and Border Protection did not immediately provide a response.
According to Boguslavskiy, one of the probable explanations may be that there has been a rise in the number of passengers who are carrying several gadgets with the goal of selling them. “Obviously, that’s not the case with 99% of people bringing a laptop and an iPad, but it’s up to customs as they choose to view it,” he said to reporters. Alternately, it might just be for the purpose of increasing tax income from the flood of tourists.
Additionally, according to Boguslavskiy, this is not the only manner in which Mexican traditions might give passengers the impression that they are a smoke and mirrors. Tax-free cameras are only permitted for a maximum of two cameras, and cigarettes that exceed ten packs are theoretically subject to a fine or confiscation. People load up on inexpensive tobacco assuming that it is secure since there is a duty-free shop just before customs, but they are surprised to find that it is confiscated immediately after they have purchased it, according to him.
Levent, who was dissatisfied with her experience at Cancun Airport, sent letters of protest to Mexican government authorities. Levent received a follow-up letter from the Cancun Customs Administration in which they informed him that the searches of his bags are carried out at random.
All of Boguslavskiy’s customers who are going to Mexico get the customs list, and he also encourages all travelers who are going to be traveling outside of the country to “please be up to date with what the local rules of customs are.”