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Improving Customs Transit Systems

In the Islamic Countries

28

authorities. In such a way, traders can submit all transit information required by authorities at

one time rather than providing the same information repeatedly to various government

agencies.

When it comes to

transit fees and charges

, it is essential to have fair fees that would be non-

discriminatory and limited to the real cost of the transit service provided. Also, it is critical for

these fees to be published and available for all stakeholders in the process. In many countries,

there are hidden fees and charges based on the inspection on the transit route by different

authorities. The efficient CTR will need to eliminate or keep them on the lowest possible level.

Another essential part of an efficient CTR is related to using

security measures

that will enable

transit goods and means of transport to stay in the same condition as they enter transit

countries. The standard way to implement security measures for this purpose is to affix customs

seals at the beginning of the transit procedures. CAs also can put time limits when the

consignment will need to be at the customs office of exit, specification of routes for

transportation, or use GPS technology to track the movement of the transit goods. Another

possible way for security, especially for high-risk shipments and shipments that cannot be

secured with the seals, is the convoys guarded by customs officers. This approach is obsolete

and considered as an extreme measure because it will increase time and cost for the customs

transit procedure.

As presented in Table 2, the large part of the global supply chain consists of transit procedures

based on the number of transit countries between the departure and arrival of goods. Having in

mind that the costs of the supply chain will depend on costs of transit, and transit costs are the

function of the number of BCPs inside the chain,

Coordinated Border Management

(CBM)

becomes an essential way to the development of an efficient CTR. TheWCO has developed a CBM

Compendium, including best practices identified in different areas of CBM. The document

provides guidance on effective coordination at borders. Successful CBM requires an institutional

arrangement for coordination, working hour’s alignment, joint customs controls, one-stop

border stop, and appropriate infrastructure and equipment at BCPs. With effective CBM, it will

be possible the time and costs related to transit procedures to be cut in half because the transit

goods and means of transport will not need to pass two BCPs at the border crossings, but

everything will be processed inside one Joint BCP. Examples of Joint Road BCPs are Chirundu

(Zambia-Zimbabwe) and Busia (Kenya-Uganda).

Like every system, an efficient CTR will need to incorporate the

performance measurement

to

control the effectiveness of transit procedures and identify possible bottlenecks. The term

“performance measurement” usually refers to the continuous gathering of data from specific

functional areas. It is the ongoing monitoring and reporting of a Customs administration’s

progress towards reaching its organizational goals. The Customs develops an internal system