New FCA system goes on trial

While Bahrain will begin to apply the mechanism in August Oman will officially join the mechanism at early in January 2016.

 

Khalid Ali Al Bustani at the Press conference. — Supplied photo

Abu Dhabi — The UAE Federal Customs Authority, or FCA, has launched an electronic direct automatic transfer of customs duties system among GCC states, named the Tam System.

The transparent system, which is part of the GCC Customs Union, will be formally launched in October, is a modern system whereby information on customs duties collected on re-exported goods being cleared for different GCC countries at the different ports of the UAE, would be available to concerning countries on real time basis.

Earlier, the system was not on a real-time basis, Khalid Ali Al Bustani, acting director-general of the Federal Customs Union at a Press conference.

The UAE is key in the application of the new system for its leading role in intra-GCC trade and its position as a commercial gateway for the Gulf countries and the region to the world, he said. The UAE also plays a significant role in customs clearing system among the GCC countries and this means that it will raise billions of dollars in transferred funds under the new system, Al Bustani added.

He said that the total volume of customs duties UAE transferred to GCC countries from the beginning of the Maqasa System according to the final destination mechanism recently applied for the period 2003 up to date reached Dh6.4 billion. The customs duties transferred to the GCC during 2014 only reached Dh1.6 billion, and that transferred from the beginning of 2015 was in excess of Dh486 million. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait started to apply the mechanism in March followed by Qatar in formal application.

While Bahrain will begin to apply the mechanism in August Oman will officially join the mechanism at early in January 2016.

Al Bustani pointed out that a meeting was held last week at the level of customs directors to follow up on the progress in the mechanism implementation at the domestic level and ensure the readiness of local customs departments and the quality connection between local departments and the FCA system.

— haseeb@khaleejtimes.com