Three-Legged Race to Trade Facilitation: Case Study at Jawaharlal Nehru Custom House

In this paper, the authors use the tool of ‘Time Release Study’ (TRS), advocated by the World Customs Organization and the World Trade Organization under the Trade Facilitation Agreement, to assess the efforts being taken at Jawaharlal Nehru Custom House (JNCH), the largest customs house in India towards trade facilitation. They explain the multi-stakeholder concept of customs clearance process and the mathematical quantification of release time. Thereafter, relying on the data collected for the TRS 2018, which the authors piloted at JNCH, they identify three sets of issues that are critical to drawing up a roadmap to achieve the time release target of 72 hours for import cargo through sea ports, which has been mandated by the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan 2017–2020 . The three sets of issues identified are time of submission of the import documents by importers (commonly known as bill of entry), level of facilitation or intervention (as determined by the risk management system) and involvement of non-fiscal concerns that may require processing by regulatory authorities, other than customs. Highlighting the nuanced impact of extent of pre-arrival processing and different grades of facilitation or inspection, the paper emphasises the necessity for a concerted and cooperative effort to achieve the challenging release time target. JEL Classifications: C41, D04, Z18