Tuesday, 22 October 2013 00:44
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The Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) in association with the Shippers’ Academy Colombo (SAC) has organised a major forum for all the clients of the industry to update about new Customs rules and notices to come into force shortly.
The Chairman of the organising committee of the forum Rohan Masakorala has requested the trade to participate at the forum on 4 November, at The Kingsbury from 4 p.m. onwards with senior and operational staff along with finance staff.
He said the Ministry of Finance has published Gazette Number 1829/39 dated 27 September 2013, as a major reform process is taking placing at the Sri Lanka Customs to facilitate exports and imports. The Director General Customs and his team have now placed the system that would expedite the export processing system as well as enhance the clearance process of imports which will result in supply chain efficiency.
There was a partial delay in implementation as the legal environment had to be cleared which required an amendment to the Customs Ordinance. This change has been done under Amendment No. 103, with the issuance of the above gazette.
The gazette will facilitate the Customs Department to fully implement the ASYCUDA-led automated system and most importantly the exporters and the importers will migrate into a minimum paperless environment to deal with Customs processing.
Panel examination system to change
The age-old panel examination system will be changed and a new examination location for export containers will be introduced at the port access road in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). This alone will reduce exporters’ transaction cost dramatically in many aspects.
The new gazette will introduce a revised tariff system as Customs will have to facilitate the trade with upgrading of its hardware and software. Overall the international trading environment of Sri Lanka will be taken to a new level with this initiative taken by Jagath Wijeweera, Director General of Customs, along with his team.
Tickets are available at the JAAF Secretariat, 8, Arunachalam Avenue, Off Horton Place, Colombo 7. Tel: 4528494or visit www.shippersacademy.lk for online reservation.
