By Mabinty Kamara
The National Revenue Authority (NRA) has launched four different reforms within the custom service department in order to improve revenue and the facilitation of trade in Sierra Leone.
Mrs. Jeneba Kpaka Bangura Deputy Commissioner General of the National Revenue Authority who chaired the occasion said that the reforms are set to decongest the ports and also position Sierra Leone in the world community of Customs Administration.
The restructuring includes an introduction of the banking system, an extension of operation to Saturday, an SMS messaging and email service and the declaration tracker.
Administrative delays and "red tape" pose a huge burden on traders all around the world for moving goods across borders. The reduction of these red tapes augments trade facilitation at different levels around the world. This according to officials of NRA is mostly operational and key to changing the operations at Customs.
NRA officials acknowledged that customs operations all over the world operates on 24/7 basis. But this has not been the case for customs at the Queen Elizabeth the 2nd Quay in Freetown. Because of challenges to digitalize the system, businesspeople have had to wait for a long time in order to clear their goods thereby incurring demurrages.
However, they are hopeful that the reform will bring a change in the operations. With the In- House banking for instance, importers could now walk into Customs, do declarations and then pay all Custom related charges like a one stop shop with effective internet connectivity.
"These are the kinds of innovations and reforms that we want to build on, to be one of the most excellent revenue generating authorities in the sub Region”, said Dr. Samuel S. Jibao, Commissioner General of NRA.
The SMS Messaging and Email Services generates and sends real time messages to all businesspeople who would have initiated the process of clearing goods at customs till completion.
With the Declaration Tracker, business people can monitor in real time the status of their declaration through the installed screens within the premise that displays the declaration processes.
Dr. Sahr L. Jusu, Financial Secretary emphasized the relevance of NRA to the government, adding that the government plans to overhaul manual processes to fully digitalize it core processes.
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