Reduction in MPI’s levy on travellers arriving other than by cruise ship

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is reducing the Border Processing Levy (sometimes referred to as the Border Clearance Levy) under the Biosecurity Act 1993. This reduction will come into force on 1 February 2026.

As Customs collects this levy on behalf of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), we will collect the lower levy amount, along with the Customs’ unchanged levy, from that date.

The table below outlines the proposed levy rate change, and the resulting overall change in levy charged for each arriving traveller each traveller (all figures GST-exclusive). The proposed reduction of $4.89 represents a reduction of about 29% in the MPI Levy rate.

The combined cruise levy rate is not changing from $37.72 per arriving traveller ($10.58 for MPI; $27.14 for Customs).

For more details about MPI’s levy rates, see Levy rates set by the Director-General and notified in the New Zealand Gazette