CUSTOMS EYES SPEED - Customs steps up tech for faster clearance, fewer port crowds to ease Christmas rush

With less than a month before the busy end-of-year activities at the country’s ports get into high gear, Commissioner of Jamaica Customs Kirk Benjamin said the state body is pushing its express clearance programme by leveraging technology.

Benjamin, in a recent Gleaner interview, said it was extremely tedious to try and examine all items coming into the country with a finite number of staff and working within a particular timeframe to get the job done.

He said Jamaica Customs has new scanning technology and capabilities that have been deployed to speed up the pace at which goods pass through the ports of entry without having to stop for an inordinate period of time to carry out physical examination.

“What we want to do is to only examine the ones that need to be examined,” he added.

Working with its stakeholders

The Customs boss said the agency has been partnering with some of its stakeholders, such as Kingston Wharves, a number of shipping agents, and deconsolidators to move imported items through the ports more quickly.

Deconsolidators are logistics businesses that break down large, bulk cargo shipments or full container loads into smaller, individual parcels or shipments for final location distribution and delivery.

He stressed that Jamaica Customs is working with its stakeholders to make their declarations ahead of time, so that when they arrive at the ports of entry customs officials would have an idea what was in the containers as they carry out the scanning exercise.

“We ideally want to move to a situation where when these goods come, they are offloaded, scanned, the duties are paid, [and] it is released, for the most part. And you can take it to a warehouse that you have, then call your clients and they can drive to that location, pick up their goods and go,” Benjamin said.

He said Jamaica Customs is seeking to prevent an influx of people on the port, noting that this hampers border security.

“When you have a proliferation of people in the space, it gives the hustlers and other persons good cover because they are hiding among legitimate people who are doing business, and we want to be able to see clearly what is happening,” he said.

Benjamin said while he is anticipating a more efficient way for persons to get their imported items in December, he could not guarantee that all the delays would disappear as Customs is still working to get all the players on board.

“Some persons don’t want to expend the cost of getting a warehouse, and they are comfortable to let the goods stay there and allow their clients to visit the ports. But we have to get them to the point where they understand that it is cheaper to have the goods at the warehouse,” he said.

Meanwhile, Benjamin told The Gleaner that revenue collection for the agency increased by seven per cent ($9 billion) over the period April to August 2026, compared with the corresponding period in 2025.

He pointed out that this was achieved despite a decrease in travel tax by 21 per cent, owing to the closure of hotels as a result of the impact of Hurricane Melissa.

Tax revenues collected by Jamaica Customs contribute to about 35 per cent of government revenue, Benjamin noted, adding that the average amount collected by his agency was between $25 billion and $30 billion monthly.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com