Full implementation of Sri Lanka Custom’s ASYCUDA World system becoming a reality

ASYCUDA World (AW) full implementation is becoming a reality and Sri Lanka Customs is now in the final stages of automating its processes to ensure that the trade is facilitated to the maximum with no operational delays at a minimal cost. The ASYCUDA World system is now being fully implemented for both imports and exports trades.

Delivering his opening remarks, Director General of Customs Jagath Wijeweera declared that the Customs operations would be fully online by 31 March 2013 and called on the trade to be ready to carry out operations online.

The Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council, the apex body for shippers, together with the ICT division of Sri Lanka Customs, was instrumental in organising an awareness seminar on 1 March 2013. During the seminar, detailed information of the process and the concept of the operating system were presented. Areas covered  were from keying in customs declaration up to the end of the operation. Some of the main areas were the progress and problems of AW connectivity to the ASYCUDA World related issues, SLPA manifest requirements and limiting the errors, e-payments, implementation of the manifest, import/export cargo examination and boat note passing and import/Export CusDec submission and limiting input errors.

The participants covering importers, exporters, freight forwarders, shipping lines, banks and other customs and port users were able to discuss issues and operational problems during the panel discussion.

The expert panel comprised of Dr. Tharaka Mahaulpatha, D.A.D.T.D. Pragnaratne, Sudattha Silva, Ismail, Jayawardena of Sri Lanka Customs, Upul Jinadasa, SAGT, Janaka Munasinghe, SriLankan Airlines, Datta Gunasekera, Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Luxamana Perera, Bank of Ceylon, and A.S.M.W. Kumarasiri, People’s Bank.

It was announced that People’s Bank too has established the facility with Customs for online payment similar to Bank of Ceylon. People’s Bank is also in the process of facilitating other banks to connect Sri Lanka Customs through People’s Bank’s payment platform.   Speaking at the seminar Shippers’ Council Chairman Dinesh De Silva explained the importance of embracing these new facilities to move ahead as an industry, as a nation to be competitive among the region. 

He emphasised that in today’s business, trade needs to do the work efficiently and safely as time is money. Therefore doing transactions online is essential to achieve the advantage from automation which ultimately is a cost saving for every business. He finally stated that it had been a long journey and urged the industry to be committed to the new changes for the betterment of the industry.