The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) slashed the time it took for its customs agents to release imported goods from different entry points by more than half, or slightly over two days, in the financial year ending June.
In a statement, the taxman noted that the duration of time to release goods dropped to an average of 51.43 hours in the review period from 112.6 hours in the previous period, with the taxman attributing the improvement to the increased adoption of Pre-Arrival Cargo-processing.
The pre-arrival process requires traders to provide customs authorities with advance information on goods brought in or out of the customs territory.
In the financial year ending June, customs revenue collected from goods passing through the Port of Mombasa, Inland Container Depots, and at Kenya Railways Corporation Sheds rose by 4.9 percent to Sh791.368 billion in the review period.
Customs revenue is collected from nearly all imported goods, including cars, fuel, mobile phones, machinery, textiles, and steel products.
Longer release time by the KRA and other agencies in the entry points has made some importers, especially those from the neighbouring landlocked countries, use alternative routes to ship their products.
But the KRA says it has enhanced systems capabilities of the Customs Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS) now allows for the declaration of customs entries using the bill of lading as the base document, enabling processing to commence even before the cargo arrives.
Moreover, all the goods arriving at the Port of Mombasa must now be inspected at the port of origin. This ensures compliance through the issuance of a Pre-Export Certificate of Conformity by licensed inspectors appointed by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
KRA’s customs revenue collections comprised revenues from oil taxes which grew by 10.3 percent to stand at Sh300.77 billion and non-oil taxes which stood at Sh490.6 billion.
The value of imported goods processed by the KRA’s Customs Department rose by 11.7 percent.
