Importers and exporters are concerned over frequent downtimes on Kenya Revenue Authority’s customs system saying it is affecting cargo clearance and denying government revenues.
The Integrated Customs Management Systems (iCMS) has had back-to-back downtimes in recent months, disrupting cargo clearing at major Kenya points of entry, exposing traders and importers to extra costs and losses.
Last week, the system was down for up to four days according to traders. A similar hitch was experienced in February.
On Tuesday this week, KRA also noted disruption of services on its payment platform in an internal communication seen by the Star.
“This is to notify all our esteemed stakeholders that our online payment platform is unavailable due to technical challenge. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and kindly request for your patience as our technical team work to restore normal operations,” the notice read.
The system downtimes affect clearing of goods at all major entry points including 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. 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 (Sh1.1 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, as part of the cargo clearing process.
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 has on several occasions acknowledged the hiccup in a message to clearing agents.
During the last downtime, the taxman said had noted that it was having declarations and IDFs (Import Declaration Forms) mapping issues 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 Shippers Council of Eastern Africa has since called on the government to adequately resource KRA to develop systems continuity to help the industry and avert revenue losses.
“It is important to note that the industry has become dependent on the automation and which has led to expedite clearances over time,” SCEA chief executive Agayo Ogambi told the Star yesterday.
He noted that for instance, iSCAN use has led to a reduction of physical verification to an average of less than 12 per cent at the Nairobi Inland Container Depot.
This has seen cargo dwell time improve to 3.5 days. “But with the continued challenges, the dwell time and port efficiency and productivity will be affected. The systems challenges impact exports too, timelines and produce shelf life shall be affected due to the delays,” he said.
Shippers are also bound to incur additional storage costs which are charged at $30 (Sh3,877 ) for 20- foot containers and $60 (Sh7,755 ) for 40-foot.
The government, on its part, is
losing out on daily collections of
applicable duties due to the system
challenges, Ogambi noted.
