Kozhikode: Facilitating smooth clearance of exports and imports, the Beypore Port will soon have a 24x7 customs clearance service with the support of Indian Customs Electronic Data Interface System (ICES). Customs sources say their high ups will visit the port within a couple of weeks to check the facilities and start the service at the earliest complying with the latest policies of the government to promote minor ports to bigger business.
The service will facilitate the online documentation and fast-tracking of consignment clearance by the exporters besides reducing the physical interface between customs, traders and other regulatory agencies. The conventional method of using hard copies for clearance too will end with the new facility. Beypore Port Officer Ashwini Prathap said the current manual process of customs clearance was causing a lot of delay in the container movement.
Customs officials noted that since Northern Kerala had a lot of export potential the authorities were now focussing on the expansion of existing services at the airports and sea ports here. With the opening of the Kannur Airport, the export-import business is expected to touch new heights and the nearby States like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu too will come to seek our services, they point out.
It was in 2015 that the all the leading seaports and airports were provided with the round-the-clock customs clearance facility. The Ministry of Finance issued a special order too in support of the extension of the same as extensive manual documentation requirements and procedural delays were found impeding trade growth. It was also then projected as an administrative reform to rev up the economy and give more focus to minor ports.
Port officials said they started container shipping from Beypore six months ago under the State government's coastal shipping promotion initiative. Though the port had been facilitating container movement since 2017, only its unloading was done here instead of tapping export potentials. With the introduction of round-the-clock customs clearance, more exporters, who currently depend on the service of Cochin Port would make use of the service here, they said.
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