TIRANA, March 14 /ATA/- In the framework of service provision reform, which consists in simplifying the procedures for citizens and entrepreneurship, the introduction of state of the art technology and improvement of the existing ones has become an obligation under the customs legislation.
To that end, Minister of Finance has approved an action plan which apart from alignment of Albanian legislation with the European acquis includes adaptation of the customs procedures pertaining to facilities and simplifications.
In an interview with ATA, Director of Procedures close to General Customs Directorate Saimir Sinani says that the latest steps in the system digitalization are linked with deregulation reform launched by Albanian govt. and introduction of e-signature.
The advantages associated with these novelties are related to on-line application and approval of a string of authorizations and licenses that need to be issued by customs authorities.
Currently, economic operators or their representatives can apply in real-time (on-line) for some of the special regimes and procedures related to excise stamps.
The electronic signature, according to Sinani, as in the case of on-line application, is the main element of on-line declaration that precedes the widespread and important process of “paperless customs.”
In this context, our objective is to make sure that electronic signature will start to function until March 15 to later proceed with either online or paper-based declaration up till June 30 and after that solely with on-line declaration.
The online applications and declarations will significantly reduce the time and costs for individuals and economic operators.
Furthermore, this system in place minimizes the physical contact of economic operators with the customs counters and deters corruption, Sinani says.
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