NZ pilot for time-sensitive consignments

NZ Customs has been undertaking a pilot program aimed at accelerating the clearance of time-critical goods held in Customs Controlled Areas (CCAs).  It applies to cash import entries where a Customs clearance is held pending payment of duty, GST and charges.

If the pilot proves a success after analysis of findings it will be rolled out nationwide.

The trial was initiated following a discussion with a specialist CCA/broker about importing goods with a limited lifespan, making timely clearance and delivery critical.

The current clearance process is that when import entries are lodged by brokers for clients with Customs deferred payment accounts and consignments are 'delivered duty-paid', all charges are paid by the supplier who is invoiced by the broker later.

The broker submits an import entry on their broker-deferred account to ensure the charges are not passed on to the client.  The TSW system (trade single window) automatically adjusts the broker-deferred entry status and changes it to a client-deferred entry. 

Neither the broker nor Customs can change the entry back to broker-deferred, only to cash entry which requires payment at a Customs public counter.

In the case raised with Customs by the concerned broker, the only payment required was the Import Entry Transaction Fee (IETF) - duty and GST are not applicable for these types of shipments.

Customs saw that its blanket approach to clearances was not working for this customer as the shipments were time critical and needed immediate clearance.

The resulting trial allows the broker to direct credit the IETF fee to Customs' bank account. Once received, Customs arranges for the delivery order and tax invoice to be sent. The broker can remove goods from their CCA out-of-hours by completing an import entry that has been processed by Customs with the response "Goods cleared from Customs pending the payment of Customs charges."

This trial applies only to cash import entries where clearance is held pending payment of duty, GST and/or charges. If a cash import entry is held or stopped for any reason other than payment required, it cannot be released.

The pilot is based on R9 Accelerator www.r9accelerator.co.nz where the objective is to work on projects that solve major pain points for businesses and reduce their costs of dealing with government.