Customs efficiency speeds turnaround at Mauritus ports

"Behind every successful port there is an effective, best practice, world class Customs service,” says Rajendra Gupta Ramnarain of the Mauritius Revenue Authority. He said with the use of technology Customs processes had come a long way in the modern business environment with processes significantly simplified. “In Mauritius we custom-built our Customs Management System (CMS) in 1998 tailoring it for our purposes,” he said recently. In 2009 this system was upgraded once again allowing for goods to be cleared fast and efficiently. “The CMS is completely electronic and paperless allowing for e-payments and placing no restriction on the payment location,” he said. “This entire system is designed to facilitate trade and bring about the release of goods as quickly as possible.” Automatically filtering electronic declarations according to sensitivity risk, Mauritius authorities have created a system that classifies consignments along three colours – green, yellow and red. “Cargo that falls within the green channel has no risk and is cleared within 30 minutes at the sea port and eight minutes at the airport. “The yellow channel is aimed at cargo that is considered to have some risk, while red is where all high-risk declarations are cleared and physically inspected” he said.