India has been improving consistently in the World Bank’s EODB rankings over the past 5 years and one of the key drivers has been the initiatives under Trading across Borders (TAB), where India jumped substantially from 146 to 68 in the last two years.
Keeping with the Government’s objective of furthering ease of doing business, particularly in trading across borders, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has introduced Machine based automated clearance of imported goods.
At present, the imported goods are available for examination or clearance to the officer after the applicable duties are paid by the importer.
Time Release or dwell time studies conducted by the department have shown that a major contributor to dwell time today is the time taken by the importer to pay the duties.
The new initiative has been launched as a pilot at two ports, Chennai and Nhava Sheva from February 6, 2020, and will soon be rolled out to all ports across India, including the Inland Container Depots, Airports etc.
