The World Customs Organization organized a national Time Release Study (TRS) workshop for the National Board of Revenue (NBR) of Bangladesh from 29 to 31 March 2022 within the framework of the SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP) light-touch intervention.
As a result of the series of virtual activities to build the capacities of the TRS working group of the NBR and strengthening its stakeholder engagement, Bangladesh successfully held a national pilot TRS on 21 March 2022, putting the knowledge into practice.
The objective of this mission was to follow-up on the progress NBR achieved and to further enhance the internal capacity to conduct periodic TRS in a self-sufficient manner.
During the workshop twenty NBR officials actively participated in the hands-on practical exercises, and reflected on the challenges encountered and lessons learnt during the pilot study. The participants also engaged in a lively discussion on concrete steps to ensure the success of the actual TRS study in the coming months, e.g. by further refining their questionnaires and discussing risk mitigation strategies.
Furthermore, based on the preliminary analysis of the pilot TRS results, the participants conducted mock sessions to validate and interpret the data, and discussed measures to tackle possible bottlenecks and trade facilitation initiatives which would be instrumental in reducing clearance time and cost of doing business.
For more information on the GTFP, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.