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By Channa Kasturisinghe

Implementation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Customs Valuation System and the introduction of Electronic Data Interchange will drastically change the way the Customs deal with the trade, the President of the Association of Clearing and Forwarding Agents, M.S.M Niyas said.

He said the experience of investors, importers and customs House Agent as far as the faster Customs Clearance of imported goods had never been pleasant, and it was due to delays caused by outdated customs laws and procedures.

"One of the crucial reforms in the Customs will be the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation system. This measure provides a single system that is fair, uniform and neutral for valuation of imported goods by the Customs confirming to commercial realties and outlawing the use of arbitrary or fictitious Customs values.

The agreement by its positive definition of value, recognises that customs valuation should be based on the actual price of goods to be valued. It is a positive sign that the Bill to effect the necessary amendment to the Customs Ordinance is to be presented to the Parliament soon and the Customs would be able to implement it in the near future, Niyas said.

He said that the existing method of valuation was by far a notional concept called normal values and that was the biggest deterrent factor in the trade which, hindered business growth.

"It also empowers Customs officials to give various discretionary interpretations or rules in valuation of imported goods.

The implementation of WTO Agreement on Customs valuation in January 2003 would eliminate a number of problems faced by importers which has been affecting the trade for over 30 years," Niyas said. He said the other revolutionary measure which would drastically change the way Customs deal with the trade is the Introduction of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or the e-Customs Clearance project to be launched in February 2003 under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Consumers Affairs.

"Under this project e-Services Lanka shall provide a switch between the Customs and the Trade (Importers, Exporters and Customs House Agents) to transmit and lodge their Cusdecs(Customs declarations) data electronically thus saving the time Customs have to spend in obtaining data.

It will also promote healthy Customs practices by avoiding person to person contact, which opens room for corruption.

EDI system is efficient and transparent and is bound to ensure faster processing of data," Niyas said.He said Customs House Agents who are the largest contingent to benefit by the introduction of EDI have taken the initiative of educating those who in the trade on the new system by organising training and orientation programs focusing on how to transform their activities and the way of dealing with Customs.

"Furthermore, we are also working out with various Cusdec software developers in finding out a faster way of transposition by which their existing Cusdec software packages could transfer their captured Data to the services providers' Data file format automatically without having to re-feed this information manually all over again.

Although we may need a lot of technical support in this area we are confident in assisting the Customs endeavour to speed up the clearing procedure," Niyas said.

He said the speedy implementation of these revolutionary measures was largely due to the appointment of Sarath Jayathilaka as the Director General of Customs who is the first Customs career personnel to be appointed to this post by the Government.

"That decision by the Government has put an end to the practice of filling the vacancy for the post of Customs Director General by appointing the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) personnel who have no apparent exposure in this field which requires vast knowledge on Customs activities. SLAS personnel generally appointed for a three-year period and that period lapses even before they acquire speciality in the field.

Therefore, the Trade considers this move by the Government as a very timely and an appropriate one which would immensely facilitate the trade," Niyas said.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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