CBIC chairman releases national time release study 2022
What is the news :
- Shri Vivek Johri, Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), presented a set of Time Release Studies (TRS) conducted by the department.
What is Time releases study (TRS):
- TRS are essentially a performance measurement tool for assessing the cargo clearance process of the international trade, as recommended by the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the World Customs Organization (WCO).
- It adopts average cargo release time, i.e. the time taken from the arrival of the cargo at the customs station to its eventual release for import or export, as the case may be.
National TRS 2022
- The National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2022 covered 15 major Customs formations, including four-port categories –
- Seaports,
- Air cargo complexes (ACCs),
- Inland container depot (ICDs) and
- Integrated check posts (ICPs)
- These four port categories handle about 80 percent of the bills of entry (imports documents) and 70 percent of the shipping bills (export documents).
- NTRS 2022 and the Custom House level Time Release Studies, have found strong affirmation for the four-fold ‘path to promptness’, namely:
- Advance filing of import documents enabling pre-arrival processing,
- Risk-based facilitation of cargo,
- Benefits of trusted client program – Authorized Economic Operators, and
- Direct Port Delivery (DPD) facility.
Key Findings of National TRS 2022
- The NTRS 2022 has reported further improvement in the average cargo release time for all the four port categories in 2022 over the corresponding period of the previous year-
- by 2 percent for ICPs to a significantly higher 16 percent for ACCs.
- For the sea cargo cleared through the seaport or inland container depots’ average release, the time has improved by 12 percent.
- With this improvement, the ICPs have achieved the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP) target release time to be achieved by 2023.
- In the case of Exports, the Study noted that the documentary clearance of export consignments has been significantly minimized, ranging from 4:04 hours in the case of ACCs to 47:41 hours in the case of ICDs.
- Documentary clearance of export consignments, measured by the time taken from the arrival of the goods at the customs station to grant of Let Export Order.
- NTRS 2022 and local TRSs have also made certain recommendations to further reduce the average release time targets to meet the targets set out in the NTFAP and improve the trade facilitative eco-system in the country.
How will the TRS benefit businesses involved in cross border trade?
- Creates favourable conditions for legitimate business to benefit from the implementation of trade facilitation measures or initiatives
- Improves transparency and predictability for the business community with regard to the clearance process, leading to better inventory management and just-in-time deliveries
- Reduces financial burden that businesses may face from possible inefficiencies caused in government clearances in the trade flow
- Enables business community to partner with Customs and other government agencies to improve trade flow process of cargo during import, export or transit, providing them with a better trading environment
