CBIC releases National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2023 report

Source: The post is based on the article “CBIC releases National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2023 report” published in PIB on 18th June 2023

What is the News?

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has released the National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2023 report.

What is the National Time Release Study(NTRS)?

Time Release Study is essentially a performance measurement tool for assessing the cargo clearance process of international trade as recommended by the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the Trade Facilitation Agreement(TFA) and the World Customs Organization (WCO). 

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

The ports included in the study include seaports, air cargo complexes (ACCs), inland container depots (ICDs) and integrated check posts (ICPs) which account for approximately 80% of bills of entry and 70 percent of shipping bills filed in the country.

What are the key findings of the National Time Release Study(NTRS) report?

The average import release time has continued to improve, achieving 20% reduction in release time for ICDs; an 11% reduction for ACCs and a 9% reduction for seaports in 2023 over 2022.

The report reaffirms the 3-fold ‘Path to promptness’ comprising 1) advance filing of import documents enabling pre-arrival processing 2) risk-based facilitation of cargo and 3) benefits of trusted client programmes – Authorized Economic Operators.