The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, as part of its strategic commitment to improving global trade, is conducting India’s first National Time Release Study (TRS) from 1st to 7th August. The exercise will be institutionalised annually during the same period.
The TRS is an internationally recognised tool advocated by the World Customs Organization to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of international trade flows.
This initiative for accountable governance will assess rule-based and procedural bottlenecks—including physical touchpoints—in the clearance of goods, from arrival to final release of cargo. The objective is to identify delays in the trade process and implement policy and operational reforms to improve efficiency without compromising trade control. Export-oriented industries and MSMEs are expected to benefit through greater standardisation aligned with international benchmarks.
The initiative is also expected to support India’s performance in the Ease of Doing Business rankings, particularly under the “Trading Across Borders” indicator, where India previously improved from rank 146 to 80.
Earlier, individual customs formations conducted TRS studies at port level. The national TRS expands this approach by introducing a uniform, multi-dimensional methodology covering regulatory and logistics aspects of cargo clearance, establishing average release times for goods.
The study will be conducted simultaneously across 15 ports, including sea, air, land, and dry ports, which together account for 81% of import Bills of Entry and 67% of export Shipping Bills filed in India. It will help establish baseline performance metrics and standardise procedures across ports.
