The Customs Department will be deploying a new system for the clearance of goods on July 31.

The department said it had been feeling the need for the investment, since maintaining and upgrading the current aging system had become “precarious, complicated and too costly”.

The project was entrusted to government agency MITA and several meetings have been held with Customs officials to ensure compliance with EU Customs regulations.

The Customs Department also plans to introduce other IT systems by 2020, in line with the Customs 2020 Programme, which was spearheaded by the European Commission to modernise customs processes and introduce a paper-free environment.

Another objective of the programme is to make electronic declarations the rule, and eventually introduce Centralised Customs Clearance. This should reduce compliance costs as well as improving EU security in commercial circles.

Source: Times of Malta