TIME RELEASE STUDY (TRS)

The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance is conducting India’s first national Time Release Study (TRS) between 1st – 7th August to enable faster movement of cargo across borders to benefit traders.

The exercise is being conducted as a part of its strategic commitment to improve global trade.
The exercise will be conducted at the same time across 15 ports including sea, air, land and dry ports which cumulatively account for 81% of total Bills of Entries for import and 67% of Shipping Bills for export filed within India.
It will be institutionalized on an annual basis, during the same period every year hereafter.
This initiative will help India in improving its Ease of Doing Business ranking on theTrading Across Borders indicator. Last year India’s ranking on the indicator improved from 146 to 80.

Time Release Study (TRS)?

The TRS is an internationally recognized tool advocated by World Customs Organization (WCO) to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of international trade flows.
This initiative for accountable governance, will measure rule based and procedural bottlenecks (including physical touchpoints) in the clearance of goods, from the time of arrival until the physical release of cargo.
The aim is to identify and address bottlenecks in the trade flow process and take the corresponding policy and operational measures required to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of border procedures.