SL Customs digitises payments; line agencies to follow
Bureaucratic “red tape” presents a trouble for moving goods across borders for traders.
Trade facilitation – the simplification, upgrading and coordination of export and import procedures – has therefore become a crucial concern for Sri Lankans who want to connect to the world trading system.
The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO), Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) which came into force on February 22 has been a turning point for local businesses engaging in imports and exports with Sri Lanka Customs (SLC) creating history by implementing a state-of-the-art online payment platform for SLC payments in partnership with the Central Bank (CB) on Thursday other such agencies are also in-line to go on-line with payment systems.
Officials told the Business Times that now the other agencies in ‘sea and airport goods border clearance’ will step up their efforts to digitise payment procedures and bring in efficiencies.
The Department of Health, Department of Foods, Sri Lanka Standards Institution and Import Control Department are in line to digitise, they said. This is part of the TFA measures which came into force with the ratification of two-thirds of WTO members in February. Sri Lanka too is a member. Eran Wickramaratne, State Minister of Finance and Mass Media said that the government is trying to put all ministries online or digitise them within three years.
TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit, an official said noting that once the TFA is fully implemented, developing countries are predicted to increase the number of new products exported by as much as 20 per cent, according to the WTO study.
“TFA sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building,” the official said.
Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank told media at the launch that SLC can now do transactions in real time 24/7 eliminating all barriers.
Prior to launching this revolutionary platform, only the importers/exporters who maintained their bank accounts at the two state banks, Bank of Ceylon and Peoples Bank, were able to make direct payments to customs online. Other importers/exporters, who maintained their accounts at other banks had to go through a tedious process of having to obtain a pay order at a cost of Rs. 250 from their bank, take it physically to a branch of the two state banks and get another pay order from the state bank with Customs as the beneficiary. In the new initiative, importers/exporters receive a cost benefit as their bank would only charge a nominal fee of Rs. 50 to make the Customs payments, irrespective of the value of the transaction.
This is the fee currently levied by any bank to make a real-time fund transfer to another bank based on a directive issued by the Central Bank to cap the maximum customer fee to the above amount. The new system would eliminate the previous inefficient payment process that resulted in unnecessary delays and impacted the businesses of the importers/exporters, Sudatta Silva, Superintendant SLC told the gathering.
Based on a directive from the Central Bank and with the approval of the Monetary Board, LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd has implemented the LankaPay Online Payment Platform (LPOPP) and this online payment platform will facilitate online Customs payments from all commercial banks, he said.
Now importers/exporters who maintain their bank accounts at any bank can now make Customs’ payments via their banks’ online banking facility.
The customers can now directly connect to their respective bank via any channel connected to CEFTS (Internet, Mobile, ATM or Over the Counter) to make the required payment to Customs.