CBIC releases National Time Release Study (NTRS) Report, 2023

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)’ s Chairman along with Vivek Johri with other Members of the Board released the National Time Release Study (NTRS) 2023 report.

As a tool for measuring performance, the Time Release Study (TRS) aims to provide a quantitative measure of the cargo release time, which is the period of time between the arrival of the cargo at the customs station and its eventual release for domestic clearance in the case of imports and the arrival of the cargo at the customs station and the carrier's departure in the case of exports.

Based on the sample period of January 1–7, 2023 (both days included), NTRS 2023 gives port category-wise average release time for the current year. It compared this to performance during the corresponding periods of 2021 and 2022 to, among other things:

a. assess the progress made towards the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan targets;

b. identify the impact of various trade facilitative initiatives, notably “Path to Promptness”; and

c. identify the challenges to more expeditious reduction in release time. The ports included in the study represent seaports, Air Cargo Complexes (ACCs), Inland Container Depot (ICDs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) which account for approximately 80 percent of bills of entry and 70 percent of shipping bills filed in the country.

The results of NTRS 2023 confirmed the three-pronged "Path to Promptness," which included the pre-arrival processing enabled by advance import document filing, risk-based cargo facilitation, and advantages of trusted client programmes like Authorised Economic Operators.

Further, in line with the high priority accorded by Government of India on export promotion, NTRS 2023 has placed much greater focus on measurement of export release time.

The contrast between regulatory clearance, which was completed with the issuance of a Let Export Order (LEO), and the broader feature of physical clearance, which takes place after the logistical operations are finished and the carrier departs with the products, was recognised in NTRS 2023.

It was also observed that adopting the benchmark of regulatory clearance, the NTFAP release time target has been achieved for almost all the port categories. The extent of certainty regarding the better average release time has improved.

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