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By Channa Kasturisinghe

Sri Lanka Customs will embark on a time-targeted program from August this year to further improve its efficiency in the cargo import and export clearance procedure, a senior Customs official told the Daily News.

The program would enable the Customs to provide improved service through various work points and reduce the lead-time in the cargo clearance process.

"We have given much attention to the concerns of the Government including increasing the customs revenue by improving surveillance process and providing correct statistics and management information. At the same time we are aware of the concerns of the trade mainly to introduce a efficient cargo clearance procedure to reduce the lead-time.

The Customs at present is going through a process of streamlining its operations to address the needs of the trade. So far we have being able to increase working hours at different work points. Although there was request by certain sections of the trade to make the customs functioning 24 hours there is no real need as we can cater to the present volume with the improved working hours. What is really necessary is a time-targeted program which could improve our productivity," the official said.

The Customs has improved the working hours of most important working points including the Import Documentation Centre (Long Room), Export Documentation Centre at Times Building, One-stop Documentation Centre at Canal Row, the Bonding division and the Investor Facilitation Centre at Hemas building till 7pm.

"The `long rooms' where documents regarding sea and air cargo import clearance are processed, should be streamlined to ensure speedy movement of cargo as about 94 percent of total revenue of the customs are derived from this section. We had discussions with the Government, business chambers and other stakeholders and identified the issues, where drastic changes are necessary," the official said.

Meanwhile exporters and cargo clearing agents have stressed the importance of other role players in the cargo clearing process to adopt innovative methods to provide efficient service to facilitate the trade. They have called upon the private sector role players including shipping agents to improve their services as cargo clearance process is not a responsibility of the Customs alone.

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