Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Norwegians, Eh?

This really only would work in a country like Norway:

Passengers arriving at Norway's busiest airports can declare their additional tipple or cigarettes to an automatic teller instead of a customs officer in what Oslo says is a world first.

"This will enable us to use our personnel to fight more serious smuggling," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen was quoted as saying by daily Aftenposten.

Halvorsen, arriving from abroad, was the first to use the automatic customs machine, which became operational on April 1.

Public NRK television said she declared an extra bottle of wine, and pictures showed she paid the duty by bank card before walking out with a receipt in her hand.

I try to imagine Russians or Italians lining up (in itself unbelievable) to use such a machine. They tend to treat tax avoidance as a sport, so it really would be amazing to see any of them using a machine like that. 

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