The customs division of the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) has over these past months introduced two new modules within the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) as part of its paperless journey.
The first being the e-manifest module launched in March 2023 was followed by the excise tax module in June within the same year.
The two projects implemented under the Economic Partnership Agreement of the European Union will overtime enable Customs to significantly reduce the huge compilation of paper documents and enhance services provided at both the Excise Unit of the Inland Revenue Section and at the Airport Cargo Terminal.
The e-manifest which has replaced the manual transmission of the manifest form is facilitating the receipt of cargo data electronically in real time directly from the source after the departure of an aircraft from the country of origin.
The information being received electronically through the e-manifest and airway bill, includes particulars of the goods being transported, its description, quantity, characteristics, flight route, airline carrier amongst others.
Exchanging the manifest and airway bill electronically is allowing the airport cargo customs team to gather information about the goods well in advance, conduct preliminary risk assessments timely, to expedite the clearance process of the goods upon arrival into the Seychelles.
Following the successful implementation of the e-manifest module, the airport cargo wishes to thank all the partners and airline carriers for their involvement and support.
For the excise tax module introduced last month, excise manufacturers can now insert all information related to their product from start (raw materials) to finish (end product) into the ASYCUDA system online.
This process which was previously being conducted manually is not only enhancing the service provided to the excise manufacturers, but it is also enabling the unit to streamline their monitoring process when tracking goods from start (raw materials), during production stage to finish (end product), in addition to benchmarking the allowable wastage.
The system also allows proper enforcement of the excise tax act by sharing real live data with tangible information about the goods, the sales, available goods in stock, the amount of tax payable, including other activities being carried out by the excise manufacturers.
Ahead of the launch of the excise tax module, in preparation, a series of trainings were held from April this year onwards with excise manufacturers and staff members accordingly. Presently, the excise officers continues to assist manufacturers as and when needed when using the system as part of the familiarization process to encourage digital transformation.
A total of 11 excise manufacturers already registered with the SRC’s Customs Division are actively using the system to date.