CBSA seizes millions of dollars from Vancouver Airport in recent years

The  seizure is mostly from the Chinese citizens.

According to government sources, the total amount of seizure increased by fifty percent in the past three years and this is fanning the sizzling housing market at Vancouver.

The information, released to The Globe and Mail, claimed that during this period, border guards seized more than $13-million dollars in hidden currency from 792 Chinese people passing through Vancouver International Airport, where an average person had 17,000 dollars in hidden bills, bank notes or drafts.

Alongside there is an additional $323-million declared at the airport by 20,000 Chinese citizens or passengers on flights to and from that country, during roughly the same period, according to data released to The Globe through a freedom of information request.

Some experts believed, these huge declared and undeclared sums had been brought by some of the 922,000 people from China who had been granted 10 year temporary visas, which allowed them to visit Canada up to six months at a time.

The root cause of siphoning of these money was to avoid paying taxes both in Canada and China, as Chinese laws stipulated that one could not carry more than US$50,000 cash in a year, out of China which now raise the question of the source of the funds.

The Canadian customs declaration law required an individual to declare any amount above $10,000 at the point of entry, failing which it would be seized by CBSA.

The 19 million dollars that had been seized between 2013 and 2015 in undeclared cash by the Border agents, three quarter of which belonged to Chinese Nationals.

The reasons for carrying cash maybe that the Chinese people had concern about the future of Chinese economy.

However, the sudden inflow of huge cash from foreign land created bubble in the housing market in Vancouver, where local people could not compete with Chinese so far as purchasing power was concerned.

What agonized the authorities in Canada  is  that the money was neither local nor had been taxed locally or earned locally had created a huge disparity in terms of buying power between Canadian citizens and non-Canadian (Chinese) Citizens thereby distorting the market in Canada.

The CBSA had revamped the scrutiny on Chinese passengers in recent years and it gives increased attention to citizens from countries deemed a high risk for activities such as money laundering and financing terrorism.

The anti-money laundering expert at Vancouver-based consulting firm said foreign visitors are not aware of our Canada’s currency reporting requirements or unable to read the customs form properly when they enter the country.

People can get seized money back by appealing to the Canada Border Services Agency and providing a paper trail or affidavits from witnesses stating that the cash was not earned through criminal acts.

If they win their appeal, a fine of up to $5,000 would be imposed to get their money returned.

The Metro Vancouver home buyers released a report in early summer after five weeks of official data showed that Chinese buyers were involved in about one in 10 purchases across the region.

The B.C. Liberals, in   July this year forces foreign nationals to fork over an additional 15 per cent of their home's value in property transfer taxes on foreigners on the basis of this and other factors.

With the new tax, coming to effect the home sales of the region in hit their lowest August levels in four years.

(Reporting by Chandan Som)

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