'Customs play key role in govt revenue collection'

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Sri Lanka Customs play a key role in government revenue collection and its importance has increased over the years significantly with the country widening its export and import base.

The country is recording an average economic growth of 8 percent for the past two years and expects to maintain the same level in future too. With a Rs 1.5 trillion budget the total targeted tax income for the year is Rs 1 trillion. The Customs is expected to collect Rs 570 billion by the end of 2012, Director General Customs Dr. Neville Gunawardene said.

The increase of foreign exchange rate will have an impact on tax collection and the expected revenue will go up. The expected increase will be in the range of 23 to 24 percent over the last year, he said at a seminar titled 'Ports shipping procedures and industry issues' organized by the National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka held at its auditorium last week.

This is a challenging period as increase of vehicle taxes, imports, exports and rupee depreciation could be seen. The expenses of government sector salaries, free healthcare and education further add pressure to the existing situation. "The government plans to spend Rs 500 million on development and the private sector is to fund four times this figure. We have a year ahead of us to plan well considering the latest development in the economic environment," he said.

The uncertainty in the global scenario which present negative effects on tax collection will be a major impediment for Customs revenue collection effort. With a widened scope of social and security concerns beyond tax collection, the administrative activities should be strengthened to meet the main responsibility of the institution. Trade facilitation, collection of data and dissemination of accurate information to enable effective exporter and importer relationship is vital. The main focus of the Customs will be trade facilitation with a view to control illegal trade activities. This calls for a proper management system to ensure a good balance between trade facilitation and enforcing.

The Customs key attention has being the automation process which is currently been implemented deploying a more advanced version of ASICUDA World. It will provide e-services with the support of service providers. The system will have a test run next month with plans to implement it by March. With the system in place the release of exports and imports could be made more speedily. This will enable the Customs to move towards a paperless system.

Sri Lanka is ranked 53rd in the list of best Customs services where Singapore is ranked number one. We aim to be within the best 30 by 2013 with better coordination, closer customer relationship and effective addressing of problems with a view to provide an improved service, Dr. Gunawardene said.