VISAKHAPATNAM: In a bid to facilitate the movement of imports and
exports at Visakhapatnam Port and reduce the clearance time for
commodities from an average of seven to three days, Visakhapatnam
customs is set to initiate a mechanism under which document checks and
physical inspections will be carried out only for goods of exporters and
importers with a ‘dubious’ background.
All other goods and commodities will be cleared through an online submission process.
“Although World Customs Organisation recommends that the average clearance time for a port should be below three days, last year we maintained an average clearance time of seven days. This year we had improved our performance and maintained an average clearance time of four days. Hopefully, with this mechanism in place we would improve our average clearance timing to three days by the end of the fiscal year,” said DK Srinivas, Principal Commissioner, Visakhapatnam Customs.
Customs officials said that this mechanism will be introduced under the Turant Customs scheme introduced by the Union Government for speedy clearance of goods at air and sea ports.
“A critical component of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index rankings is the ‘trading across borders’ category in which India is ranked 80 (in 2019), compared with 146 in 2018. India is keen on entering the top 50 rankings and to realise the goal, the Turant Customs scheme has been introduced,” a Customs Official added. Officials are hopeful that if manual checks of documents and physical inspections of every imported or exported consignment is stopped, the clearance time can be significantly reduced. In fact, they claimed that Visakhapatnam customs might reach the WTO recommendation of below three days for average clearance timings by the end of the financial year.
“We would undertake the risk management solution on the basis of our trust and faith in the exporters and importers. However, agencies with a dubious background won’t be spared. Their consignments would undergo a rigid inspection and verification,” added Srinivas.
Visakhapatnam customs has earlier initiated reforms such as single window interface for facilitating trade, e-Sanchit and direct port delivery.
All other goods and commodities will be cleared through an online submission process.
“Although World Customs Organisation recommends that the average clearance time for a port should be below three days, last year we maintained an average clearance time of seven days. This year we had improved our performance and maintained an average clearance time of four days. Hopefully, with this mechanism in place we would improve our average clearance timing to three days by the end of the fiscal year,” said DK Srinivas, Principal Commissioner, Visakhapatnam Customs.
Customs officials said that this mechanism will be introduced under the Turant Customs scheme introduced by the Union Government for speedy clearance of goods at air and sea ports.
“A critical component of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index rankings is the ‘trading across borders’ category in which India is ranked 80 (in 2019), compared with 146 in 2018. India is keen on entering the top 50 rankings and to realise the goal, the Turant Customs scheme has been introduced,” a Customs Official added. Officials are hopeful that if manual checks of documents and physical inspections of every imported or exported consignment is stopped, the clearance time can be significantly reduced. In fact, they claimed that Visakhapatnam customs might reach the WTO recommendation of below three days for average clearance timings by the end of the financial year.
“We would undertake the risk management solution on the basis of our trust and faith in the exporters and importers. However, agencies with a dubious background won’t be spared. Their consignments would undergo a rigid inspection and verification,” added Srinivas.
Visakhapatnam customs has earlier initiated reforms such as single window interface for facilitating trade, e-Sanchit and direct port delivery.
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