A. General Information
Information exchange of customs records-INDIRA system
B. Lessons Learned
INDIRA is an open platform to exchange information on customs records between Mercosur members. It runs on operating databases and gives full access to 5 years records. It aims at preventing illicit actions by obtaining information that supports the control of foreign trade operations.
Mercosur countries made a decision to create platform to exchange information on customs records. The system accomplish certain requirements.
- It must not function as a periodic sending of records from one Customs Administration to the others, because it implied great data volumes that in most of the cases were not used by anybody
- To solve the previous problem, data should be interchanged when the requiring Customs Administration need them.
- Queries should run on operating databases.
-There should be full access to the last 5 years records, because this is the time the law permits to take legal actions in Mercosur countries
The system was called INDIRA (Information exchange of customs record in Spanish).
To preventing illicit actions by obtaining information that supports the control of foreign trade operations.
Confidential data, protected by IT and for customs use only
Information exchange on exports and imports
Different methods of consultation for one customs declaration.
The interchanged data can be used by each of the State Members of MERCOSUR. With the information, each Member can generate transport documents and customs declarations.
For more detail refer to the link: http://www.wcoomd.org/-/media/wco/public/global/pdf/topics/facilitation/activities-and-programmes/gnc/gnc-repository/gnc-utility-block-_-indira-system-_-v7_0.pdf
Communication model is the following:
Import/Export declarations between customs administrations
The simplicity to obtain data from another countries customs administration
Improvement in control routines
Improvement in enforcement tasks
Simpler and faster customs investigations
Improvement of transparency of customs actions
INDIRA system is an open system, there are no restrictions in its use, it can be adopted by other administrations other than Mercosur members (like Chile and Bolivia).
C. Relevant Standards
• COMALEP AGREEMENT "Multilateral Agreement of Mutual Cooperation and Assistance between the Customs Administrations of Latin America, Spain and Portugal"
• Bilateral Agreements