Customs Administration from Republic of Macedonia (CARM)

New Computerized Transit System of the Macedonian Customs Administration

CARM requested to accede to the Common Transit Convention and started preparations. The preparation of CARM for adhesion to the revised Common Transit Convention and connection to the EU New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) is a pre-requisite of the accession process in the Customs sector. The European Commission requires that the candidate countries have to be fully NCTS-compatible one year prior to accession.

The project contributes to strengthening the institutional and administrative capacity of the Customs Administration of Macedonia, to create optimal conditions in the decision making process, to increase the efficiency of the customs activity and the harmonization with European standards.

SIVECO Romania is recognised for successfully implementing NCTS, in other countries, prior to this project: National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA) - and Customs Administration from Republic of Turkey.

Benefits of using NCTS

The project supported CARM to implement NCTS Phase 4 fully compliant with DG-TAXUD specifications aligned to the latest KELL (Known Error List) from the moment of implementation.

"Its use at the national level means initial and transitional phase towards a considerable accession of the Common transit system. In the next phase, through its connection with the EU systems, will enable smooth movement of commodity shipments to and from the Union, without customs formalities at border crossings and the additional benefit in accelerating and facilitating the exchange of goods with the most significant economic partners of the Republic of Macedonia." - press office Customs Administration of Macedonia

SIVECO’s team intends to take every opportunity to involve CARM staff in project activities, throughout the project.

SIVECO has extensive experience of working with Customs Authorities and other public administrations and this is why specialists within the Romanian software company are convinced that the key to success is involving the end-users of the services at the earliest possible stage of product definition and development.

This creates a strong sense of ownership within the beneficiary administration, reduces the risk of rejection of new methods and technologies and ultimately transfers knowledge from the contractor to the beneficiary – the very essence of sustainability.

Flexibility, adaptability and simplicity are vital because public administrations developing at the rate of the CARM and in such a complex environment do not need more complexity. They need practical, effective, easy-to-use and easy-to-understand solutions, which make a positive difference.

Solution implemented follows:

• Ability to comply with future specifications from DG TAXUD or national specifications
• Communication Policy: XML and/or EDIFACT options are proposed in the NCTS specifications. It is important to selected options that are fully in line with the Communication Policy already implemented within CARM. However, the communication scheme selected for dealing with NCTS operations must also be coherent with solutions that will be developed and applied for other types of transit, e.g. TIR etc.
• Integration: The business scope of this was to enable CARM to develop a national transit system compatible with NCTS in order to cover the IT requirements of the Community/Common Transit Convention
• Integration at Reference Tables level: cv system components do not have separate mechanisms to maintain/access codified data
• Integration at functional level: SIVECO solution demonstrates how it will integrate the full customs process and relevant operations automated through different sub-systems from CARM customs integrated system
• Technological Basis: J2EE web system, Oracle Database, message synchronous and asynchronous exchange, XML type documents, OS independent, modular, expandable, and ready to be integrated in a SOA system
• Target groups: The direct beneficiaries of this project are customs offices implied in transit operation and the IT Department of the Customs Headquarters
• The indirect beneficiary of this project: the Trade Community

New Computerised  Transit System

• In accordance with the European Commission/DG TAXUD technical and functional documentation, current NCTS implementation covers:
• Office of Departure - functionalities required at the level of the Office of Departure for normal and simplified Transit procedures
• Office of Destination - functionalities required at the level of the Office of Destination for normal and simplified Transit procedures
• Office of Transit - all functionalities required at the level of the Office of Transit
• Central Administration - management of reference databases at the national level and the provision of common services to the various NCTS users, e.g.
• Central Services - create, modify, remove user/list of users
• National services - list of movements, movement information, national code lists
• Statistics - information management, production of statistics concerning the transit movements
• System Administration - services needed to administer an IT system
• NCTS reconciliation of transit movements with any corresponding summary, import or export declarations as well as with the Tariff Management System where appropriate
• NCTS accessible on web browsers, from different devices, including mobile devices

Project phases

• realize "Gap and Need Analysis"
• realize detailed functional specifications
• detailed technical specifications
• design and development of database management system
• software design, development, testing, piloting, documentation and deployment of the NCTS compliant with the latest, published and approved official version of NCTS (NCTS Phase 4)
• perform inter-operability tests required for the NCTS – Phase 4 or later version, i.e. Mode-0 (of the National Transit Application – NTA, itself), Mode-1 (of the NTA, STTA – Standard Transit Test Application - and the CCN/CSI) and Mode- 2 (as before and the TTA - Transit Test Application).
• inter-operability tests required for the NCTS - Phase 4 or later version will be performed on a platform provided by the MCA
• integration of the NCTS into CDPS
• all the software testing according to the used

Advantages for CARM:

• simpler, paperless system
• prevents false declaration of quantity and value of goods
• standardised set of procedures for applying legislation
• improves the communication with the customs administrations involved
• prevents and fights against customs fraud
• a consistent set of harmonized customs procedures
• effective and efficient transit movements monitoring
• facilitates discharge of the transit procedure
• uses a single warranty throughout the entire delivery of goods
• efficient control based on risk analysis
• optimized configured Workflow/Document management System
• real time information.