Supporting Statement

Supporting Statement

Declaration of Unaccompanied Articles

1651-0030

A. Justification

1. Sections 202 & 203 of Public Law 95-410, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Procedural Reform and Simplification Act of 1978, provided that, effective November 2, 1978, articles which are acquired in and sent from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are not required to accompany an arriving person in order to be accorded personal exemptions or a flat rate of duty. The arriving person completes Form CBP-255, Declaration of Unaccompanied Articles, for each parcel or container that is to be sent at a later date. Each data element on Form CBP-255 is needed to determine a traveler's allowable exemption, including accompanying articles as well as those sent by mail and to expedite possible refunds of duties improperly collected. The information collected on Form CBP- 255 is pursuant to 19 CFR 148.110, 148.113, 148.114, 148.115 and 148.116, as amended.

2. Form CBP- 255 is completed by each arriving person for each parcel or container which is to be sent from an insular possession at a later date. It is the only means whereby the CBP officer, when the person arrives, can apply the exemptions and/or 5 percent flat rate of duty to all of the traveler's purchases, both accompanied and unaccompanied. A copy of Form CBP- 255 is sent to the vendor by the individual/importer and attached to the appropriate parcel or container. When the articles arrive by mail in the United States, they are then assigned the appropriate exemption and/or flat rate of duty. Without this procedure, there would be no means of ensuring that the mailed merchandise would be accorded the appropriate duty exemption.

3. This form is completed by respondents while they are on in-transit on conveyances such as airplanes. Therefore, it would be difficult to provide for electronic completion and submission of this form. Also, CBP does not place this form on its website because it has carbon copies attached to it.

4. Since the information on each form is unique, this information is not duplicated elsewhere.

5. No additional consideration has been given to small businesses or other entities.

6. If this information was conducted less frequently, the traveling public would not receive the personal duty exemptions. Many petitions for duty refunds would occur, resulting in a great waste of money, time, and effort for travelers as well as the Federal Government.

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7. This information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(c)(2).

8. Public comments were solicited through two Federal Register notices published on March 4, 2008 (Volume 73, Page11656) and on May 6, 2008 (Volume 73, Page 25023). As of this submission no comments have been received.

9. There is no offer of a monetary or material value for this information collection.

10. No specific assurance of confidentiality is provided with this information collection.

11. There are no questions of a personal or sensitive nature on this declaration.

12. Estimated Annualized Burden on the Public - The estimated burden for this information collection is 1,250 hours. This is based on an estimated 7,500 respondents who average 2 responses per year for a total of 15,000 responses. Each response is estimated to take .0833 hours (5 minutes) to complete.

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Public - The estimated costs associated with this collection is $20,625, based on 1,250 burden hours at an estimated average salary of $16.50 per hour (although it is completed by the traveling public while they are in-transit so it is difficult to assess a dollar amount or cost).

13. Estimated Record keeping Burden on the Public. There are no Record keeping burden hours associated with this collection.

Annualized Capitalization Cost Burden to the Public. There are no capitalization costs associated with this collection.

14. Estimated Cost to the Federal Government - The annual estimated costs associated with the analyzing and processing of the information collected is $27,020. This is based upon an estimated 772 hours expended at an average hourly rate of $35.00.

15. No changes were made to this information collection.

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16. This information collection will not be published for statistical purposes.

17. CBP does not request an exception for including the expiration date on this form.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statements identified in Item 19 on the 83-i.

B. No statistical methods were employed.