“In another six months, we are planning to go completely electronic for customs clearance by doing away with requirement of any physical documents. “With the integrated customs system, the document processing time will come down to less than 10 seconds from more than 10 minutes now,” Vimalanathan said. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is planning to rope in more government agencies under the SWIFT mechanismMumbai: Imports will become easier from the next year as the CBEC is planning to go paperless and move towards a completely integrated customs system for facilitating documentation and fast-tracking clearances of consignments. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is planning to rope in more government agencies under its SWIFT mechanism, which replaces nine separate documents with one common electronic declaration. The CBEC will float a request for proposal within three months inviting IT companies to integrate the customs system which currently uses three softwares for faster clearance of goods.

Source: Mint July 17, 2016 12:56 UTC