The General Authority of Customs (GAC) released 254,836 customs declarations in February, the GAC disclosed in its monthly newsletter.
The figures saw a reduction in transactions compared to January, which recorded nearly 300,000, and December 2020 with 331,149 declarations.
However, in February, the air cargo released 232,666 declarations while the maritime customs completed 22,111 declarations in the same period. Also, 98% of customs declarations were released in an hour.
Captagon (amphetamine drug fenethylline hydrochloride) was recorded as the largest seizure during the month, with over 60,000kg seized. At the same time, the GAC made 125 seizure reports in February. Meanwhile, India retained its spot again as the top exporting country while China reclaimed the top importing country position from the USA.
Environmental Protection Reserves and Wildlife Department remained the best government agency in terms of release time, with an average release time of one hour. The GAC also transferred 21,856 declarations to other government agencies.
In the newsletter, the Head of Curriculum and Evaluation of the Impact of Training Department at the Customs Training Center, Ahmed Abdullah Boukerbei, discussed the tasks and the most prominent statistics in courses, programmes and the number of employees on scholarships to study a Diploma in Customs Management and Bachelor of Border Management.
According to Boukerbei, the GAC trained 900 employees remotely due to COVID-19 following its annual training plan. He noted that an Associate Diploma in Customs Management is being offered in partnership with the Community College of Qatar (CCQ). Charles Sturt University in Australia designed the programme to meet the requirement of staff.
The Bachelor of Border Management is also offered in partnership with CCQ and accredited by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. About 38 GAC employees will join the programme in October this year.
