National Time Release Study (TRS) 2022

April 16, 2022

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has recently presented a set of Time Release Studies (TRS) that have been conducted by the department. TRS is a tool for performance measurement and assesses the international trade’s cargo clearance process.

Overview:

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recommends the TRS under the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The TRS mechanism adopts the average release time of cargo, i.e. the time it takes for the cargo to arrive at the customs station to its eventual release for export or import.

About National TRS 2022

15 major Customs formations have been covered by the National TRS 2022 has covered, including four-port categories that are

Air cargo complexes (ACCs)
Seaports
Integrated check posts (ICPs)
Inland container depot (ICDs)

80 percent of the bills of entry (documents related to import) and 70 percent of shipping bills (documents related to export) are handled by these four-port categories. The Custom House level Time Release Studies and the National TRS 2022, have found strong support for the four-part ‘path to promptness’, which are:

Direct Port Delivery (DPD) facility.
Risk-based facilitation of cargo
Benefits of a trustable client programme – Authorized Economic Operators
Advance filing of import documents allowing for pre-arrival processing

Findings of the National TRS 2022

The study has reported an improvement in the average release time of cargo for all four port categories ranging from 2 percent for ICPs to 16 percent for ACCs. The average release time for sea cargo cleared through seaports or inland container depots has decreased by 12 percent. With this improvement, the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP) target release has been achieved by the ICPs. The study has found that in the case of exports the documentary clearance of consignments for exports has been minimized significantly. For ACCs it stands at 4:04 hours and for ICDs it stands at 47:41 hours. Certain recommendations have also been made by the local TRS and the National TRS 2022 to reduce the average release time targets with the aim of meeting the targets that have been set out in the NTFAP and to improve the country’s trade facilitative eco-system.

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