A system hitch has disrupted cargo clearing at major Kenya points of entry, exposing traders and importers into extra costs and possible losses.
Clearing and forwarding agents have reported downtimes on Kenya Revenue Authority’s Integrated Customs Management Systems (iCMS), which they say has had downtimes for the past three days.
Points where clearing of goods has been most affected includes the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the Port of Mombasa, Inland Container Depots and Container Freight Stations (CFSs).
“You start a clearing process, it hangs, that has been the situation for the past three days. This means cargo clearing is not smooth and during downtimes, it also means no duty is collected,” a clearing official at the JKIA told the Star.
KRA's Customs and Border Control Department first introduced the iCMS in 2019, as it moved to replace the old Simba system, as a way of sealing tax cheats and make trade processes seamless.
The $8.45 million (Sh1.2 billion) system was first fronted in 2017 but failed to take off till July 2019.
KRA requires importers to submit Import Declaration Forms (IDFs), sea manifests, security bonds, cargo declarations and exemptions through iCMS, a rule that became effective on July 7, 2019.
Clearing and forwarding agents have however on several occasions raised concerns over persistent hitches, which have seen them incur losses.
“ When the system is down, it means there is nothing we can do. This leads to delays along the entire chain from the point of entry to the delivery of goods to the client,” said Nobert Omondi, a clearing agents at the Nairobi ICD.
KRA acknowledged the hiccup in a message to clearing agents.
The tax collector said it was having “declarations and IDFs (Import Declaration Forms) mapping issue” between iCMS, KenTrade Trade Facilitation Platform and Kenya Ports Authority’s KWATOS system.
KWATOS is an automatic and optimised operating system for container and breakbulk (conventional cargo) terminals with capability to plan, execute and control operations.
“ The technical teams have been and are working round the clock to resolve the anomaly. The analysis and resolution are still a work in progress. We apologise for this inconvenience and request for your kind understanding,” the text by KRA reads in part.
According to KRA, the iCMS system had a technical hitch that was blocking transmission of declarations to both KWATOS and the KenTrade system.