Kozhikode: Facilitating smooth clearance of exports and imports, the Beypore Port will soon have a 24×7 customs clearance service with the support of Indian Customs Electronic Data Interface System (ICES). Customs sources say their high ups will visit the port within a couple of weeks to check the facilities and start the service at the earliest complying with the latest policies of the government to promote minor ports to bigger business.
The service will facilitate the online documentation and fast-tracking of consignment clearance by the exporters besides reducing the physical interface between customs, traders and other regulatory agencies. The conventional method of using hard copies for clearance too will end with the new facility. Beypore Port Officer Ashwini Prathap said the current manual process of customs clearance was causing a lot of delay in the container movement.
Port officials said they started container shipping from Beypore six months ago under the State government’s coastal shipping promotion initiative. Though the port had been facilitating container movement since 2017, only its unloading was done here instead of tapping export potentials. With the introduction of round-the-clock customs clearance, more exporters, who currently depend on the service of Cochin Port would make use of the service here, they said.
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