BANGKOK: The Finance Ministry’s Customs Department is developing a mobile app that will shorten customs clearance procedures for exports and imports to five days from the usual 10.
Department director-general Kulit Sombatsiri said clearance procedures were a focus of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s economic policy after Thailand’s World Bank ranking for ease of doing business dropped to 49th this year from 46th in 2014.
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Clearance procedures were a significant factor. The app mainly provides essential information such as customs taxable rates for each goods item as requested by users, as well as coordinate with exporters and importers when processing necessary documents for clearance procedures.
“Once the exporters and importers can get essential information any time they like, just by clicking on their devices, the working process will be much faster than in the past,” Mr Kulit said.
A Customs Department survey of clearance procedures found that the process of moving goods in containers from ship to port or vice versa took only half an hour.
Customs clearance, however, can take more than 10 days to complete, with steps such as asking permission to move goods in and out of ports and filling out documents.
These procedures will be cut to between three and five days, depending on the circumstances, once importers and exporters are allowed to use the app.
The app will be used for coordinating and providing guides for shipping companies to contact customs officials at anytime and anywhere without the hassle of meeting officials in their offices.
“But shipping will still require filling out the physical papers of the Customs Department,” Mr Kulit said. “You can’t do it through the app, because customs law will have to be amended to serve online activity, which will take quite some time.”
He said the app would help plug the loophole of officials asking for “tea money” (bribes) in exchange for special consideration.
