"We spend much less time on customs clearance. We are also able to examine the proceedings at any time, thanks to Cyber tariff," said Xu Hongjun, director of the financing department of Ningbo Zhonghua.

Cyber tariff, the first service of its kind in China, was launched on August 19 by the Bank of China, in co-operation with the General Administration of Customs, according to Zhao Zhenyu, the project manager of Internet Banking Division of the bank.

An e-banking product, Cyber tariff is a real-time on-line tariff payment system established to facilitate import and export companies' business and customs procedures.

The system processes business data automatically and supports payments of customs clearing charges in different cities.

The bank took almost a year to develop the system starting in March 2001. In July, the system was put into trial operation in nine customs departments including Dalian, Huangpu, Shenzhen and Shanghai customs.

These customs branches selected several reputable export and import companies with large transactions as pilot customers. By August, the system, also installed in six provincial branches of BOC, was operating smoothly.

Statistics from BOC show that on-line tariff payments via Cyber tariff totaled 17.7 million yuan (US$2.14 million) by August 15 during the trial period. By now, about 40 branches of BOC around the country have set up the system and 28 customers have signed contracts with BOC for Cyber tariff, said Zhao.

Before Cyber tariff, import and export companies had to commute to-and-fro between the customs office and the bank at least three times - and usually more - to finish all the procedures required for a single transaction.

Now a company only needs to go through the on-spot procedures once, when the customs is checking the goods, since all other procedures for customs clearance and the paying of clearance charges will have been finished online beforehand.

The introduction of the system saves huge amounts of time, makes payment easier and more convenient, and improves export process efficiency.

Furthermore, companies are able to check the clearance of their goods in real time via Cyber tariff on the Internet.

The electronic payment system is part of the State's Golden Customs Project, an electronic platform 12 ministries are jointly developing with the aim of improving information sharing, business transactions processes, supervision and monitoring.

Reliable sources indicate that other banks will follow BOC's lead.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and the Bank of Communications recently signed co-operation agreements with some customs offices to start up electronic tariff payment systems.

BOC, the country's largest foreign exchange bank established in 1912, has long been a pioneer in China in applying electronic technology to banking operations. For instance, it was the first Chinese bank to use computers in business in 1979 and also the first domestic bank to provide on-line banking services in 1996.

(China Daily September 2, 2002)