A ‘single point’ for customs
With an objective to remove unnecessary hurdles for trouble-free customs clearance, the government implemented Single Window clearance for imports last year. The industry now should pull up their socks and CARGOTALK adopt the changes. sought the take of
With the ease of doing customs clearance, the role of custom house agents and freight forwarders has undergone a significant change. In the today’s competition, they need to be an excellent custom broker in the form of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO). Entities that receive an AEO status are considered a ‘secure’ trader and a reliable trading partner. And, the objective of AEO programme is to provide businesses with an internationally recognised ‘quality mark’ indicating their commitment to security in the international supply chain. Laying emphasis on easy and secure trade flow, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) organised an exclusive session on ‘Future of Customs Clearance in India’ in the 23rd biennial convention. Explaining how Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) aims to facilitate EXIM trade and enable hasslefree and smooth operations of trade transactions across borders, Rajendra Kumar Meena, IRS, Additional Comissioner, Single Window, says, “With the strong base of SWIFT, the industry can reduce interface with government agencies, dwell time and cost of doing business. It is a natural step for helping achieve the objective of ‘Digital India’ initiative.”
According to Meena, customs brokers should be prepared in terms of technology, work practices and human resource. Further explaining how the entire process works, Meena says, “The project has enabled the importers to electronically file their regulatory clearance information at a single point only with the customs. The system then identifies consignments and respective regulatory agency from which it requires clearance. It facilitates all regulatory agencies to convey their decision about the release of import goods to customs and to the importer electronically. After the rollout of single window system, the required import permissions from other regulatory agencies are obtained online without the importer having to separately approach these agencies. This has become possible through a common, seamlessly integrated IT system utilised by all regulatory agencies and importers. Under the Single Window Project, ‘Integrated Declaration’ has been introduced wherein the Customs Bill of Entry format has been modified to include all clearance related data which was hitherto required in separate application forms by the agencies. Thereby nine different and separate documents have been replaced by a single electronic declaration.
The objective of AEO programme is to provide businesses with an internationally recognised ‘quality mark’
Single window will soon be extended to exports also.”
Clarifying the typical characteristics of an effective cargo clearance, Meena says, “The targeted outcome i.e. fast and secure supply chain, high level compliance and cost effective for customs and other border agencies, technology companies, international organisations and relevant stakeholders to exchange experiences and information on technologies related to border management.”
“As the main user of this system, customs can access TeN to search for information on the latest