Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (Taffa)
has expressed concerns over delays at the port of Dar es Salaam as they
could not clear goods for some days now following technical hitches
facing the electronic clearing system.
The Electronic Single Window
System (eSWS) which is used for lodging documents for cargo clearance is
currently under maintenance after facing some technical challenges.
The
system at the port of Dar es Salaam is an integrated cargo clearance
and payments system and also allows parties involved in international
trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with
a single entry point to fulfil all import, export and transit related
regulatory requirements.
Taffa president Edward Urio told The Citizen
that following the hitches that had been experienced for about a week
now at the Dar es Salaam Port, the freight forwarders were unable to
clear goods, hence leading to congestion of goods.
“Clearing agents
could not lodge their manifesto in the system and therefore could not
perform any transaction including paying the charges required for
clearance of goods,” he said.
Explaining, he said following the
difficulties they were now faced with the burden of having to incur
demurrage fees and other storage fees because the goods have over-stayed
longer than required at the Port.
When contacted for comments,
Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General Alphayo Kidata
confirmed that the system had some problems and was currently undergoing
maintenance.
“We have reverted back to the old system (TANCIS) to continue with operations,” he said.
However,
when asked when they were expecting the eSWS maintenance to be
completed he said the system was under the EGA and they would be better
placed to know. However efforts to contact them proved futile.
Tanzania
Shipping Agency Association (TASAA) chairman John Massawe said while
they were not directly involved in lodging manifesto to the system but
they had experienced delays in the past one week that affected clearance
of goods.
He noted that it was true that in the past few days there
had been some delays in operation because the system was down thereby
affecting a majority of clearing agents.
“Those involved in clearance
are better placed to understand whether there were technicalities
experienced with the clearance platform,” he said.
Tanzania Shipping
Agencies Corporation (TASAC) Director General, Mr Abdi Mkeyenge said he
was currently travelling from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam and therefore was
not in position to comment on the matter.
The main benefits of ESWs
is that all Clearing and Forwarding Agents (CFAs) will lodge only a
single declaration to all government departments responsible for cargo
clearance. In this context, this will fast track the clearance
bureaucracy at both entry and exit points such as ports, airports and
border points.
Migration to the Electronic Single Window System
(eSWS) at the port aims at allowing smooth transition from Automated
System for Customs Data (Asycuda) to the Tanzania Customs Integrated
Systems (TANCIS).
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