BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Customs departments need to respond effectively!
This is Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg’s assessment today, who said a formal coordinated approach of managing the border should be adopted.
The Minister was speaking when meeting the visiting Secretary General of the World Customs Organisation, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya.
The Honourable Minister said the role of Customs was changing very fast and required Customs to respond to the demands of the fast and ever-changing environment such as increased volumes and complexities of trade, new business models and requirements, increased security threats and organized crime, a new approach to the border, demands from security, new trading patterns and increase in revenue fraud, e-Commerce, disruptive technologies, big data, the list is endless.
“Customs will require a new set of skills including data analytics, Advanced Post Clearance Audit skills including systems audit, new IT and innovative skills to embrace the disruptive technologies. Harmonized rules and regulations, processes and procedures, policies, the approach to risk management and integration of systems is the ultimate vision for the Kingdom of Eswatini.
“Tax remains a primary source of revenue. Eswatini’s fiscal situation has been fragile due negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as it caused disruptions in the global supply chains including border processes and procedures,” said Rijkenberg. He further said with the above fiscal space challenges, the country had been undertaking several initiatives to strengthen its domestic revenues and improve the management of its expenditures to accelerate the implementation of its priorities.
