Customs duty may be charged on goods which are brought into or taken out of the State. The base of customs is from Law No. 1 dated 31 March 1961, The law requires that there is a dedicated customs department within the Ministry of Finance under Article 2 of the law. The law allows that customs duties to be specific or ad valorem and may be imposed, revoked or modified by decree of law. Customs Law consists of 43 Articles.
Punland State opted for the specific duties since its inception 1998 but over the last few years there were several attempts to study the ad valorem that uses total value of the goods and internationally harmonised rates from WTO. Puntland Administrations have shown enthusiasm to move over to the latter system.