An analysis shows that the abolition of the obligation to fill out traveler baggage declarations has saved 33.39 million people a total of 1.67 million hours over the past year.
According to the Korea Customs Service on the 8th, the obligation to complete traveler baggage declaration forms was abolished on May 1 of last year as part of the innovation in traveler customs regulations. The baggage declaration system was improved so that only travelers with items subject to declaration are required to voluntarily declare.
As a result, among 33.79 million overseas travelers from May 2023 to April this year, 33.39 million (98.8%) were able to skip the time and procedures needed to fill out the declaration forms.
Arithmetically, assuming it takes 3 minutes per traveler to complete the declaration form, the total time saved by all travelers entering without filling out the form amounts to 1.67 million hours, according to the Korea Customs Service.
There was also an effect of not spending 370 million KRW, which had been allocated to producing paper declaration forms.
In August last year, the Korea Customs Service improved the ‘Traveler Customs Declaration’ app and expanded the mobile baggage declaration service, which had previously been available only at some airports, to all airports and ports nationwide.
So far, the number of declarations processed through the Traveler Customs Declaration app is estimated at about 51,000 cases. This accounts for 13% of all traveler customs declarations.
The Korea Customs Service expects the number of declarations through the app to steadily increase in the future due to advantages such as automatic input (storage) of personal information, minimization of declaration items, and expedited passage through dedicated lanes.
A Korea Customs Service official said, “We will continue to discover and innovate regulations related to traveler customs clearance to enhance the convenience of travelers’ entry and tax payment.”
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