Government Information Service

by Emmanuel H. Joseph
Government Information Service

“This is a giant step forward for Customs’ reform. We are actually stepping out of the past. No longer are we going to depend on ship’s cargo manifest being submitted on sheets of paper which later forms huge files on our desks. From now on, these manifests will be stored on the computer. From now on, each importer is required to obtain an ASYCUDA bill of laden from the ship’s agent when receiving delivery and must present that bill of laden at Customs together with the Customs entry declaration.”

These were the words uttered by Comptroller of Customs in Dominica, Adolphus David, as he addressed the formal launching of the Cargo Manifest Module of the ASYCUDA World project at the Woodbridge Bay on Monday, 28th September, 2009.

According to Mr. David, the aforementioned conditions also apply to non-commercial importers.

“This also applies to those persons importing non-commercial or the gift packages, that is, those of you who normally pay at the small Customs office at the Deep Water Harbour better known as the ‘white house’.”

The ASYCUDA World Project, when implemented, is anticipated to provide faster clearance for cargo consignments, improve revenue control and collection and generate up-to-date and accurate Customs trade statistics for informing policy decisions.

ASYCUDA is a computer based programme for reforming Customs administration. It aims at speeding up Customs clearance through the introduction of computerisation and simplification of procedures, thus minimising administrative costs in particular. It also aims at increasing Customs revenue by ensuring that all goods are declared, that duty calculations are correct and that duty exemptions, preference regimes, et cetera are applied correctly.

One of the key features of ASYCUDA World is that it is internet based. It works on any hardware platform whether it is Linux, Windows Solaris or Apple McIntosh. It has been built with the ability to cater for loss connectivity whether it is through the loss of internet service or electrical power. If one would be to be performing a transaction and were to be disconnected, upon restoration of service, they will continue to from where they left off.
A number of security features have been built in and persons are only able to view only the information they have put in. The software uses XML (extensible mark-up language), a popular internet language. It implements the concept of E-documents automating the process of Customs transactions done within ASYCUDA.

The Monday launching completes the first two phases out of the five phase process involved in seeing the complete implementation of the project. There are three other phases left with the next phase, launching of the declaration module, scheduled to be launched in February of 2010.

In the meanwhile, Director of Customs Reform, Claude Paul, believes that there is need for better collaboration between the trading community and Customs in an effort to create a better understanding between the two parties.

“We need to embrace everybody, especially the private sector. In the past, I have not been happy with the level of dialogue between the Customs and the trading community. It happens, but not often enough. We need to get that institutionalised that we can have a regular dialogue, so that, users of the Customs system can feel that they have a stake and can, therefore, contribute meaningfully to the solutions that we come up with. It is all well and good for Customs to impose systems but we have to do it in a manner that is palatable and that people can understand where we are going.”

The Honourable Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, in addressing the launching ceremony, said that the launching is a historic one and that it manifests Government’s keeping of the promise it made at the ASYCUDA World launching earlier this year.

“Today is a historic day worthy of celebration. It is a day when the Customs and Excise Division of Dominica will begin the live operations of the cargo management module of the ASYCUDA World Online Service. This module, in the first instance, enables electronic submission of cargo declarations of vessels arriving at the Woodbridge Bay, the Deep Water Harbour. It is a manifestation of achievement that this Government promised when we launched the ASYCUDA programme earlier this year.”

According to the Prime Minister, this marks the dawn of a new era in Customs in Dominica.

“This initiative marks the beginning of a fully electronic Customs clearance process and also serves as a platform upon which to launch other modules of the system such as accounts, entries processing, warehousing, risk management and statistics.

Before the event of ASYCUDA World, this was done by submitting paper-based documents to Customs and Port Authority. The documents would later be used to account for cargo in the transit shed where a Customs officer would square off a cargo consignment after release. Over a period of time, this process proved to be cumbersome and resulted in lapses in accountability of cargo stored in the transit sheds.”

Prime Minister Skerrit believes that this launching draws Dominica one step closer in becoming more trade competitive.

“My friends, this is yet another step in the journey in our efforts to enhance competitiveness of Dominica and to improve the climate in doing business. I want to encourage all of you to embrace the spirit of togetherness and harness our energies to make Dominica a better place to do business.”

With the event of ASYCUDA world, the manual write off process will be eliminated and instead, the system will be able to automatically identify the correct consignment based on the entry processed by the brokers when the declaration module is introduced. The manifest or cargo management module is, therefore, the first of the important modules that ought to be implemented in Dominica.

The ASYCUDA World Project team is expected to work with all the cargo carrier agents, consolidators and Customs officers in the field to ensure that the transition from a manual based system to an automated electronic one is smooth and non-disruptive. In this regard, twenty-four (24) Customs officers and about twenty-six (26) other persons from the different carrier agencies have been trained to deal with ASYCUDA world. Additional support will be provided during the first few weeks of the implementation. Once the system is stabilised at the Deepwater Harbour, it will we rolled out to the other Customs sites at Portsmouth, the Canefield and Melville Hall Airports.

Staff of the shipping department of H. H. V. Whitchurch provided a live demonstration of the module at Monday’s launching.

The system will provide real-time statistics to both Customs and DASPA (Dominica Association of Sea and Port Authority) on cargo received and delivered; provide online historical data to the carrier agents and consolidators; log all transactions performed by customs officers and DASPA officials; provide all users with a single document to work from.

It also provides for the use of international standard codes used to measure trade performance consistent with international trade best practices and will significantly reduce the amount of paper and paper work needed since all information required by customs to clear goods will be submitted electronically.

This means that ALL cargo will have to be recorded on ASYCUDA before any deliveries or examination can be done so as to provide the authorities with information as to the process involved in the delivery of the cargo.

The project is part of Government’s overall strategy to improve the competitiveness of the trade system in Dominica and is being assisted by UNCTAD. The purpose of this project is to increase operational capacity of the Customs administration through the introduction of a modern computerised system (ASYCUDA World). It will improve Dominica’s capacity to monitor trade flows, enhance Government revenues and Customs controls, formulate economic and fiscal policies and facilitate trade.