An importer declares goods at the invoice value, 3 million CFA francs. Customs uses 5 million. Duties and taxes are calculated on 5 million. The importer feels punished for telling the truth.
Sometimes that is right. Often the invoice did not prove what the importer thought it proved. Either way, it pays to know the rule.
The rule: the price actually paid
In the eight UEMOA countries, including Senegal, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, customs value is governed by UEMOA Regulation 05/99/CM/UEMOA of 6 August 1999, which incorporates the WTO Agreement on implementation of Article VII of GATT. For a company used to European or American customs, the logic is the same.
The principle protects the honest importer. The starting point is the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods. It may be adjusted up or down for items the text lists exhaustively: what the buyer pays on top of the price, such as certain commissions or royalties, and the cost of freight and insurance to the point of entry.
Customs cannot simply pick a value it finds more plausible. It must start from your price, and set it aside only in defined cases.
When customs sets an invoice aside
The price cannot be established. An invoice with no proof of payment, a cash payment abroad, a handwritten invoice with no letterhead: customs has no way of checking that this is the price paid.
The price is influenced by a relationship. A subsidiary buying from its parent, relatives trading with each other: the price is accepted only if the relationship did not influence it.
Elements are missing. Freight, insurance, a commission, packaging paid separately: if they are not declared, the value is incomplete.
The price is out of line with the market. A television declared at a quarter of what similar sets sell for draws attention. Customs has price databases, and in Senegal prior import declarations are reviewed by the directorate in charge of intelligence, risk analysis and valuation. A low price is not forbidden, but it has to be explainable.
When transaction value is set aside, the text imposes an order: identical goods, then similar goods, then a deductive value from resale prices, then a computed value from production costs, and only as a last resort a reasonable method based on the same principles. Customs cannot skip steps.
Evidence to prepare before arrival
The contract or purchase order, showing the agreed price.
The final invoice on the supplier's letterhead, consistent with the contract.
Proof of payment: bank transfer, letter of credit, debit advice. It is the document most often missing, and the one that carries most weight.
Freight and insurance invoices, so those elements are declared at their true amount.
For a low price: a written, documented explanation. End of line, downgraded lot, volume discount, supplier promotion, with the papers that show it.
For imports into Senegal with an FOB value of 500,000 CFA francs or more, a prior import declaration has been compulsory since 1 May 2024. That is when value is first examined. A strong file at that stage avoids the argument on arrival.
Appeals in Senegal
The 2014 Customs Code opened several routes. Any user can file an administrative appeal, by simple request to the Director General of Customs, against a decision they dispute. For disputes over the type, origin or value of goods, the importer can go to the Customs Disputes Settlement Commission, whose remit was extended to value, or to the courts, or to the UEMOA Commission.
In practice, the strongest appeal is the one that arrives with documents. A valuation uplift is hard to argue against with words, and much easier with a bank transfer receipt.
What we do
We are not a customs broker, and clearance is handled by a licensed professional. But before calling in a truck, we check that the cargo file is consistent: the same description, value and weight on every document, and proof of payment available. A consistent file clears faster, and a truck that does not wait costs less.
Read next: importing into Senegal as a foreign company and quoting DDP in West Africa.
Sources: UEMOA Regulation 05/99/CM/UEMOA of 6 August 1999 on the customs value of goods, as presented by Mali Customs (transaction value, adjustments, substitute methods); WTO Agreement on implementation of Article VII of GATT; Senegal Customs Code, Law 2014-10 of 28 February 2014, as presented by Mamadou Gueye, principal customs inspector (administrative appeal, Customs Disputes Settlement Commission, courts and UEMOA Commission); Senegal Customs, prior import declaration generalised on 1 May 2024 and reviewed by the intelligence, risk analysis and valuation directorate.