• Objective: facilitate legitimate trade, secure government revenues
• Approach: employ a combination of Risk Management and Scanning Services
• Results: clearance times and congestion reduced, volume of container traffic dramatically increased

Background
Effective 1st January 2004, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania introduced a Destination Inspection Scheme. This decision represented a move away from Pre-shipment Inspection and contributed to the Customs modernization initiative by introducing Destination Inspection (DI). DI facilitates trade, protects revenues, can reduce the volume of physical inspections at entry points and offer capacity building for Customs through training and knowledge transfer.

Cotecna, through its Tanzanian subsidiary TISCAN Ltd., is responsible for developing and implementing a highly innovative Destination Inspection Scheme aimed at facilitating legitimate trade while securing government revenues, by introducing combined Risk Management and Scanning Services.

Cotecna’s approach
Cotecna implemented a ‘Build – Operate – Transfer’ (BOT) model with the Tanzania Revenue Authority. This enabled the following:

• A selective approach to physical inspections in Tanzania based on degree of "risk" assessed through (CRMS®), a statistical tool created by Cotecna.
• Less need for physical inspection, and a focus on high risk imports.
• Use of scanning technology with a 3.8 MeV mobile scanner and a pallet scanner at the port of Dar es Salaam. A second pallet scanner is placed at Dar es Salaam airport.

Furthermore, these technologies allow for:

• Improved allocation of customs resources
• Speedier clearance for "low risk" cargo and scanned cargoes
• Port decongestion
• Reduced business costs for all parties

Results
The consequences of combining Risk Management (CRMS) with Scanning resulted in:

• Major reduction in the volumes of physical inspections
• More efficient allocation of customs resources
• Revenue protection
• An average scanning rate of 120 containers per day and a record of 210 containers in one day
• Improved legitimate trade by reducing clearance times and port congestion
• Major capacity building impact for Customs through their full integration and involvement at all stages of the Destination Inspection process

About Destination Inspection
Destination Inspection is not only a concept of Inspection but a process of verifying the importers’ declarations upon the goods arrival. This differentiates DI from PSI (Pre-shipment Inspection). Destination Inspection Schemes work according to the following steps:

1. The importer makes a pre-arrival declaration to Customs.
2. This declaration provides all of the essential elements in order for Customs to determine, based on documentation (which is a process in line with self-declaration) the appropriate valuation, classification, and risk level to be applied.
3. The risk level is determined according to the needs of the country and its laws, i.e. regulatory bodies, Health and Safety of citizens – counterfeits, dangerous goods, sub-standard goods, revenue risk and the importer’s previous track record.
4. Once the risk determination is made and the importer’s declaration is accepted (Point of Finality), the process of verifying the declaration is undertaken.
5. The goods are then cleared via the green channel (documentation check only), sent to the Scanner (yellow channel) or sent for physical verification (red channel). The risk determination thus allows Customs to focus its resources on the most important tasks.

For more information, you may order a copy of Cotecna’s film on Destination Inspection in Tanzania.