At the invitation of Commissioner General Alphayo Kidata of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 11 February 2017 to discuss the TRA's progress and the way forward for its ongoing Customs reform.

Since 2014, a new web-based IT system called TANCIS (Tanzania Customs Integrated System) has been introduced by Tanzania Customs to progressively facilitate paperless Customs operations.  

Benefiting from strong political support, the TRA is now implementing the Electronic Single Window System through this TANCIS platform, linking Customs with other government authorities and the private sector.  

The WCO is also providing technical assistance to Tanzania Customs in revenue-related areas such as classification, valuation and post clearance audit practices and procedures under the terms of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) project. 

The TRA is also keen on improving integrity, a key issue identified by the current government headed by H.E. Mr. John Magufuli, the President of Tanzania, who was elected in November 2015.

Secretary General Mikuriya had a series of meetings with the Commissioner General and his senior management as well as with the Customs executive team to discuss the current situation and future direction of the WCO's capacity building activities.  

Onsite visits to the TANCIS control room, the scanners at the sea port and the inspection site at the inland dry ports were also on the programme.  During the meetings, Dr. Mikuriya expressed his appreciation for the ongoing modernization of Customs including in the area of transit and agreed on the importance of creating a pool of experts to sustain the TRA's reform process.