Govt aiming to fully automate customs processes by April 2026

NEW DELHI : The government is aiming to digitalise the entire customs process by April 2026 and bring more departments on board the single window interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT) portal to expedite the clearance procedure, official sources said.

“The aim is to enhanceease of doing business for importers and exporters, and reducetheturnaround timefor trade,” an official said. “Weexpect all theremaining processes to be automated within two years…it should be done by April 2026,” the official added.

Earlier this year, Revenue Secretary Mr. Sanjay Malhotra had said that the customs department was developing a fully automated trade interface system — ‘Customs 2.0’. This was being done as the government aimed to improve its ranking in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI), he had said.

Out of 139 countries, the LPI had placed India on the 47th spot in 2023, down from 40 in 2018. “Ourcurrent ranking underscores a significant opportunity for improvement,” Malhotra had said. “All payments, all interfaces with trade need to be automated so thateverything is available at theclick of a button,” he had stated

Source : https://indiashippingnews.com/govt-aiming-to-fully-automate-customs-processes-by-april-2026/