Paperless customs goal by 2025

In one month of application of the NCTS system, i.e. electronic transit at the borders, more than 16,000 electronic declarations were submitted, and the Indirect Taxation Administration (ITA) of BiH issued 650 electronic certificates, which are used for digitally qualified signing of electronic documents.

According to the ITA, the goal is that by 2025, communication between taxpayers and the ITA will be completely electronic, and that paper will be completely phased out.

By the way, after several years of delay, Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the ITA, on August 1 started with the application of computerized transit (NCTS), which in practice means automation of business processes, faster procedures at the borders, simpler implementation and completion of the transit procedure, and a reduction in costs.

“Electronic transit, i.e. NCTS is only the first service that ITA has offered to taxpayers using a digital qualified signature. Our plan is to offer taxpayers other services that will be completely electronic in the coming period. The first thing that will be implemented is the submission of VAT and excise declarations in such a way that they are signed with a new digital qualified signature. After that, the process of import and export customs clearance will be fully electronic, as well as all other customs procedures,” Ratko Kovačević, head of the ITA Communications Department, told “Nezavisne novine”, adding that the goal is for the entire procedure to be completed by 2025. without paper.

The ITA emphasizes that all shipping companies that were ready on time perform the electronic transit procedure completely normally, without any delays, and that the fact that there were 16,000 electronic declarations in August supports this.

However, on the other hand, carriers claim that the application of electronic transit, that is, the NCTS system, has not brought any major improvements and that they are still faced with huge waiting times, especially at border crossings.

“Nothing has changed. It may be noticed a little at the customs terminals that the procedures are accelerated, but very little. We still have huge crowds and waiting times from several hours to several days at the borders. They are probably still getting used to the new system. The progress in customs can be seen, but the problem still remains the border,” said Nikola Grbić, president of the Association of Carriers for Domestic and International Transport, for “Nezavisne novine”.

As a reminder, the NCTS system is a trans-European customs information system that enables the exchange of data between customs authorities and economic entities through an electronic data exchange system. Electronic messages replace various paper documents and certain formalities of the transit procedure. The introduction of this system in Bosnia and Herzegovina lasted for years, and only in the last year and a half its implementation was postponed several times, and that is solely because the electronic signature has not yet fully taken root in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Source: https://www.akta.ba/vijesti/bih/152422/carina-bez-papira-cilj-do-2025-godine