Dubai Customs accomplish 740,000 electronic transactions in H1 2007

This announcement comes to reinforce Dubai Customs thrive to improve their services and facilitate the transactions of importers, cargo shipments, clearance agents and other customers and strengthen their efforts to reach a paperless work environment which is an inherent part of Dubai Customs Strategy 2007-2011.

Seven more customs statements were added to the list of e-clearance services, allowing the customers to carry out 80 percent of their transactions through the e-clearance services.

The E-Clearance Department at Dubai Customs announced a significant increase in the number of electronic transactions. The Department statistical figures showed that 6,000 transactions are being cleared daily in addition to 740,000 electronic transactions being processed in the first half of this year, which is equivalent to 34 per cent of the total customs transactions. In comparison, the year 2006 witnessed more than one million electronic transactions, which was equivalent to only 26 per cent of the total transactions.

Omar Ahmed Almehairi, the Manager E-clearance Department at Dubai Customs, explained that this increment in the electronic transactions reflects an increase in customer's confidence in the electronic services that save their efforts and money.

"The E-Clearance Program offers our customers the ability to electronically use, exchange information and clear transactions as soon as they sign the e-clearance contract with Dubai Customs and without the need to physically visit the relevant customs centers," said Almehairi.

Almehairi stressed that Dubai Customs is working on increasing the number of electronically cleared transactions as part of their continuous efforts to meet the customer's needs and facilitate their work.

"The number of users of the new electronic services has reached an unmatched level with 284 new customers joining the E-Clearance Program in the first half of 2007, whereas the year 2006 witnessed the joining of 325 new customers. The total number of electronic customers since the launch of the program in the year 2002 is now 960 Customers," Almehairi concluded.

It is worth noting that Dubai Customs is aiming to develop all the business procedures to become electronic and this process reached an advanced stage.