CBIC releases report on Indian cargo, shows improvement in release time

The average import release time has continued to improve, with a 20% reduction in ICD release time, an 11% reduction in ACC release time

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Thursday released the National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2023 report. Time Release Study (TRS) is a performance measurement tool that aims to present a quantitative measure of cargo release time.

The release time is defined as the time taken from the arrival of the cargo at the customs station to its out-of-charge for domestic clearance in the case of imports and the arrival of the cargo at the customs station to the eventual departure of the carrier in the case of exports.

NTRS 2023 presents the port-category-wise average release time for the current year, based on a sample period of January 1-7, 2023 (both days included), comparing the same to the performance during the corresponding periods of 2021 and 2022.

It assesses progress towards the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan targets, identifies the impact of various trade facilitative initiatives, particularly the "path to promptness" and determines the barriers to more expeditious release time reduction.

The ports included in the study are seaports, air cargo complexes (ACCs), inland container depots (ICDs), and integrated check points (ICPs), which account for around 80 per cent of bills of entry and 70 per cent of shipping bills filed in the country.

Average import release time continues to improve

The average import release time has continued to improve, with a 20 per cent reduction in ICD release time, an 11 per cent reduction in ACC release time, and a nine per cent reduction in seaport release time in 2023 compared to 2022.

The import release time for seaports, ICDs, ACCs, and ICPs, in absolute terms, is 85:42 hours, 71:46 hours, 44:16 hours, and 31:47 hours, respectively.

The standard deviation measure is found to be lower, indicating a higher certainty of the timely release of imported cargo.

Findings of NTRS 2023

"The findings of NTRS 2023 reaffirm the three-pronged 'Path to Promptness,' which include advance filing of import documents to enable pre-arrival processing, risk-based cargo facilitation, and the benefits of the trusted client programme - authorised economic operators (AEO)," the Ministry of Finance said in its release.

Cargoes with all three Path to Promptness features combined meet the NTFAP release time target across all port categories.

"Furthermore, in keeping with the government's high priority on export promotion, NTRS 2023 has placed a much greater emphasis on measuring export release time," it added.

NTRS 2023 also recognises the distinction between regulatory clearance (also known as customs release), which is completed with the issuance of a Let Export Order (LEO), and the broader aspect of physical clearance, which occurs following the completion of logistics processes and the departure of the carrier with the goods.

The ministry said that the NTFAP release time target has been met for almost all port categories when using regulatory clearance as a benchmark. The level of certainty about the improved average release time has also increased.