AMMAN: A long-standing demand of the country’s importers for swifter Customs clearance of cargo at the airport and seaport has been met with the formation of a Freight Solutions Committee.
HE the Minister of Transport Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti said the committee’s formation was already helping importers considerably as their cargoes were being cleared “in record time”.
Underlining the importance of fast clearance at the Customs end, the Minister, who is the committee’s chairman, said a new mechanism called Nadeeb had been put in place to expedite the process through better co-ordination among the stakeholders concerned. Because of this, there has been a remarkable reduction in the Customs clearance time.
“It has been only a month since the committee came into being and the changes are there for us to see and experience,” he said.
Al-Sulaiti said that while it used to take between 24 and 48 hours for the Customs authorities to clear cargo at both the port and airport, it was now being done in around three hours. This had been possible, he said, because of “a better understanding between different stakeholders about the requirements of one another”.
He hoped that there would be a further reduction in the time taken for Customs clearance in the coming days.
A dedicated website, www.qatarfreightsolutioncommittee.com, allows customers to fulfil their needs and requirements online.