Ottawa/CMEDIA: The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has reportedly rescheduled its internal launch of phasing in Canada Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) digital initiative plan to modernize tax collection of import goods.
Based on a study by the Auditor General of Canada it was estimated that as many as 20% of goods coming into Canada were misclassified, resulting in a lesser amount of duty paid.
Owing to impact of strike vote activity now underway by the Public Service Alliance of Canada on the Agency’s operations, CARM’s internal launch has been postponed by CBSA from May 13 to Oct 2024
As a result, trade chain partners will continue to operate as before until the fall.
Although CARM is ready to roll out, the support of CBSA employees is critical to CARM‘s successful implementation, by rescheduling its launch, CBSA is setting industry partners up for success.
Following CBSA’s approximately 100 consultation and technical working group sessions, over 160 direct engagement events, it has completed multiple cycles of testing, including over 10 months of simulation with direct participation by CBSA employees, and industry and approximately 71,500 importers, representing over 92 percent of the volume of goods imported, are now registered in CARM.
In addition to protecting and growing $40 billion a year in revenue for Canadians, CARM will provide a number of other benefits including eliminating cumbersome and time-consuming paper-based processes, the CBSA to be equipped by better tools to facilitate focus its compliance and enforcement efforts on potential bad actors, improving importers’ functionality through the ability to enroll in commercial programs, submit accounting documents, and receive notifications through their CARM Client Portal account
CARM’s use would enable CBSA to identify errors and discrepancies in duties and tax submissions, and begin to work with industry in these areas.
