Customs Department launches one-stop service center in Nong Khai

The Customs Department is piloting the One Stop Service Center (OSS) in Nong Khai Province, hoping to double the value of border trade over the next 3 years, reducing import and export procedures by 60%, supporting agricultural and fruit exports to China, and moving forward with strict control over substandard products that enter the Thai market. Mr. Chulaphan Amornvivat, Deputy Minister of Finance, presided over the opening ceremony of the One Stop Service (OSS) Border Trade Center in Nong Khai Province to facilitate the public and private sector to receive convenient and fast services, as well as reduce unnecessary laws and procedures to prevent the government from being an obstacle to exporting and importing goods. It also continues to improve the central platform for linking electronic data at a single point (Thailand National Single Window: Thai NSW). It is hoped that border trade will double in the next 3 years from the current value of border trade of approximately 300-400 billion baht per year. It i s admitted that border trade is very important in stimulating the Thai economy because it connects both tourism and trade with neighboring countries. The Ministry of Finance hopes that the linkage with several government agencies responsible for issuing import-export licenses will help control and supervise substandard and cheap goods from abroad flooding into Thailand due to the high growth of online shopping at present, affecting Thai SMEs. By using 100% product X-ray cabinets according to the Prime Minister's policy to distribute installations to many border checkpoints to inspect risky goods, both illegal, smuggled, and narcotics, it can be said that customs officers have continuously arrested more. The Ministry of Finance has also piloted the Auto Load system, which is an automatic loading of export goods, using CCTV cameras to read vehicle registration numbers and container numbers of goods that are about to be exported at land border checkpoints. When a vehicle passes in front of the camera, the syst em will read the information. If it is a turner container loaded with export goods, the system will send information for automatic loading. The installation of CCTV cameras connected to the satellite system tracks the declaration of export-import goods, preventing goods that have been declared but not exported but have filed for export tax refunds, in order to fill the loopholes of the aforementioned problems in the past. Mr. Thirach Attanavanich, Director-General of the Customs Department, added that the Cabinet has approved the Ministry of Finance to cooperate with several agencies, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Commerce, and related agencies to plan and accelerate the establishment of a One Stop Service (OSS) at the Nong Khai Customs Office as the first pilot. The Customs Department has therefore successfully established the Nong Khai Border Trade One Stop Service (NKBTOSS) as the first one. When the Nong Khai checkpoint is successful, it is believed that border trade will grow significantly. For improving the central platform for linking electronic data at a single point (Thailand National Single Window: Thai NSW), the Customs Department has piloted it in the agricultural plant product group, totaling 673 product tariffs, by opening the service for submitting applications for licenses and certificates for importing agricultural plant products starting from September 1, 2024, supporting the application for licenses and certificates for agricultural products that are jointly controlled between the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, totaling 415 product tariffs, whereby importers can submit applications and send information only once and to support the work of the OSS center. The Customs Department has therefore developed the Thailand Trade Journey system to assist entrepreneurs doing import-export business by facilitating channels to contact information systems with many government age ncies, where entrepreneurs can apply for licenses or certificates directly through the system. The pilot project is 22 types of fruit products from the Department of Agriculture, the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards, and the Department of Foreign Trade. The pilot project is vegetables, fruits, hazardous substances, fertilizers, cosmetics, and medical devices, totaling 20 items, with the relevant agencies being the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. In addition, to reduce the burden of recording duplicate data and to be able to send data to relevant agencies at one time, a service in the form of Single Submission has been developed by piloting the import of agricultural products that are controlled by more than one agency, such as raw plant products, animal feed, mandarin oranges, cassava, garlic, lychee, frozen durian, longan, involving 5 agencies: the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Livestock Development, the National Bureau of Agricultur al Commodity and Food Standards, the Department of Foreign Trade, and the Food and Drug Administration, thus reducing the time to enter data by 60%, which is considered a drive to facilitate and reduce steps that are obstacles to doing business. Source: Thai News Agency