The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) launched yesterday SMS facilities for economic operators at the Custom House, Mer Rouge. This new service will ease the communication process between the MRA and its stakeholders particularly registered importers in a timely manner as well as keep them informed of the latest developments as regards the particular services being provided by the MRA.
The project, a joint initiative of the MRA and the Mauritius Network Services, consists of a prepaid service for sending notices to the MRA subscribers. It has a two-fold objective which is firstly to inform economic operators of the status of customs declarations and secondly the clearance of their consignment instantly on their mobile phones.
The SMS facilities is in line with the core values of the MRA in providing prompt, efficient, effective and quality services to taxpayers, stakeholders and the public at large. The target groups under the project are namely, importers who use the service of an agent for clearing their customs declarations; importers who are self-declarants; and customs brokers, clearing and forwarding agents who submit customs declarations on behalf of importers.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, the Director General of the MRA, Mr. Sudhamo Lal, qualified the new service as one among the MRA’s strategy of continual improvement of its processes and procedures in a bid to provide World Class Customs services which he said, fits the theme chosen by the World Customs Organisation this year that is: Innovation for Customs Progress.
Mr. Sudhamo Lal added that the SMS facilities will also add up to the list of Trade Facilitation measures already put at the disposal of traders which according to him, will no doubt impact positively on the cost of doing business in that sector. He also expressed satisfaction with regard to the ongoing Customs reform and modernisation programme being undertaken by the MRA. These reforms reflect positively on the MRA’s performance in the areas of revenue collection, dwell time of cargo and the integrity of the organisation, he further added.
Some of the major reform projects being implemented by the MRA consist of the E-Customs by the Customs Department which enables the electronic submission of scanned copy of specified documents/permits/authorisations thus ensuring a real-time processing of customs declarations. Another major achievement is the introduction of the E-payment system which accounts for around 40% of the amount of duty and taxes collected at Customs. The Customs Department has also adopted the Cargo Community System (CCS) Sea Import Module aimed at reinforcing security and facilitating easy tracing and tracking of cargo in real time.
Regarding projects in the pipeline, the MRA is envisaging the implementation of the Mauritius Trade Portal and the Single Window projects; the CCS Air Freight Import Module and the provision of state-of-the-art facilities at the new Passenger Terminal at the SSR International airport which is expected to be operational soon.
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