In Guatemala, the Superintendence of Tax Administration authorized Corporación Disatel S.A. to provide the service of electronic tags for the control of containers in the country.
In Panama, $20 million was approved to finance the purchase of scanners for vehicles and heavy equipment, and to build the National Customs Monitoring Center.
The Cabinet Council this week authorized to the Ministry of Public Security (Minseg) the contracting, through an exceptional procedure, for the National Customs Monitoring Center project and the acquisition of six (6) non-intrusive inspection equipment (scanners) for vehicles and heavy equipment in the total amount of $20.1 million, of which $7.2 million come from non-reimbursable cooperation funds of the United States Government, Panamanian authorities informed.
Two companies are expected to complete certification this month to provide the electronic tax stamps service in Guatemala, and by January 2019 they would be operating throughout the entire customs system.
In July of this year, it was announced that the tender for the service of electronic tax stamps for containers in Guatemalan customs would no longer be carried out, allowing several companies to provide their services independently.
In Costa Rica, the law on incentives to import these types of vehicles has been in force for six months, but agencies are not able to take advantage of the exoneration because the Treasury has not yet adapted its customs computer system.
Although the "Law of Incentives and Promotion for Electric Transport" came into force six months ago, distributors are still facing obstacles to complete the importation processes under the new tax benefits scheme.
Employers believe that a new and more efficient system is required in order to generate confidence in foreign trade.
The Information Technology System for Customs Control (known as Tic@), received strong criticism from business chambers, whose executives say that after 10 years of operation this computing platform is obsolete.
The Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (ICRC), the Chamber of Commerce of Costa Rica (CCCR) and the Digital Government program agree on this point. Alonso Elizondo, executive director of the CCCR, says that more customs efficiency is needed to lower costs in the transit of goods.
The Costa Rica customs system is overwhelmed and needs to an overhaul which is to be funded by a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank.
The operating system has been congested since 2005 and is slow to process manifests and unloading documents. It also has problems with tracking or monitoring the transit of goods, said Gerardo Bolaños, director of Customs.
The capacity of the Customs Control system has been overwhelmed and it often collapses causing delays in international trade.
Although it is considered by the entrepreneurs themselves as "the best Central American customs system", the Information Technology System for Customs Control (TICA) is currently overwhelmed by the growth in the volume of export and import operations.
Hardware that supports the IT system for Customs Control does not have sufficient capacity to manage the volume of information to be processed.
The Information Technology System for Customs Control (TIC @) has become "a victim of its own success."
Elfinancierocr.com reports that "The TIC @ system was born in 2005 as one of the spearheads in digitizing procedures that have spread to other branches of government affairs, even causing its main promoter Alicia Avendaño to be given the title Technical Secretariat of Digital Government. The amount of paperwork that manages has become a burden for its operation, which suffers much interruptions, to growing frustration of its users. "
The system came into operation in 2005 and by 2007 all customs offices were integrated into it, reducing the average time of procedures from 48 hours 20 minutes.
Operators feel that the system is "a wonder" and note that "customs offices in the interior no longer have long lines or people offering to streamline procedures informally (known as “gavilanes” in Spanish).
Costa Rican representatives from the production sector agree that lack of infrastructure at border crossings is causing delays.
The dissatisfaction is highest among industry representatives referring to customs in Peñas Blancas, where the trucks are taking between 12 and 36 hours to cross the border.
"Despite complaints, customs has reported a recovery in its revenues during the first half of the year, in comparison with the same periods in 2010 and 2009."