New delays in procedures from various entities have increased the importation of raw materials and finished productsaccording to Raúl Bouscayrol, president of the Board of Directors of the Guatemala Chamber of Industry (CIG).
Edwin Cuttizer, Customs Mayor of the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT), explained that the ports usually grant five to nine days of grace to perform all the necessary efforts and remove the products. However, he explained that, once that term expired, on average companies must pay around US $ 90 per day.
The official confirms that, currently, customs are almost 100% of their capacity regarding the container limit. Some of these remain stagnant between 15 days and one month. What they tell us, ”said a tanner – is that they still have any requirement in process. He added that, in general, the arguments about delay in removing the merchandise are related to the fact that the process in other areas is still manual in many cases, so the issuance of the required permits is delayed.
Within the study that the SAT has carried out to understand the delays registered since September 2024, the most mentioned pending requirements come from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga), as well as the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS), in relation to both medicines and food.
On the other hand, tanner indicated that Not all actors involved in the import processing chain have adequate modernization to expedite procedures. We must also have interoperability, and since they are not at the same level as us, the process is difficult – tanner argued – who explained that this situation occurs both in the private and public sector.
48 hours to 20 days
Last year, the mayor recalled that the capacity of customs was exceeded by 160%. This, according to tanner, is a delay to receive incoming containers, since the crane cannot extract them. First the pending load must be removed and then start moving the new one, Cuttizer explained.
Mariela Méndez, Import Chief of a restaurant chain in Guatemala, said the permits from the MSPAS used to be processed in two hours. However, Leslie Cutzal, head of the Department of Food Regulation and Control of the MSPAS, argued that the process lasts two days. However, as of this year, delays of up to 15 days began to be registered, Méndez said. Bouscayrol contributes to this, who assured that there has been a delay of between 15 and 20 days in the process of these procedures.
For his part, Cutzal stressed that the time of each procedure depends on possible rejections or lack of stationery, which can increase the wait for the issuance of permission. “The issuance of the certificate will not depend on us,” said Cutzal.
Tanker indicated that there are various reasons why problems are presented in the retirement of the merchandise: sometimes it is due to lack of time, which also delays the office. Factors such as Traffic, the state of the roads, among others, detailed the mayor. In addition, he mentioned the lack of pilots as another main cause.
Delays in process
According to Méndez, at the beginning to experience the delays in the delivery of permits, he questioned health, where he was informed that the problem was due to a failure in interconnectivity with banks for the issuance of the receipt used in the process. As a consequence, the Ministry collapsed for three days – March 10, 11 and 12, Méndez added, -. But it has not improved after March 13, Méndez mentioned, who stressed that the problems have been recorded since January.
However, according to Cutzal, The permits processed in a manual manner are currently processed in an average of three days, while electronic are managed in a maximum of two.
For his part, Méndez said that this has not been the only procedure in which they have experienced delays. The Import Chief mentioned the Food Registry, necessary for the entry of new products to the country. “Previously it took them to broadcast around two months. That was the time we had. Now they are taking up to six months”, Said Méndez, who added that they currently seek to issue the new record before expiration, which implies wasting a full year of the five granted.
Cutzal said, in response, that in the MSPAS the low -risk health records are processed in 20 days. Although he reported that they previously took between one and two weeks. The change, he explained, is because The load of files entered exceeded 400%, due to the lack of a platform that prevents the corresponding procedure from collecting.
Import problems
The most difficult thing for us is to tell buyers that there is no product, because it is a customer who may no longer return, Méndez expressed, when asked about the effects of not being able to specify imports in the desired times.
In addition, Méndez said that, due to the delays, expenses with shipping companies have been incurred. Indicated that You must pay US $ 180 daily to shipping companies that transport products, as a consequence of delays.
The perishable products generate greater complications, since they impact life time on the points of sale and, therefore, on the final consumer, Bouscayrol said. In addition, he indicated that other expenses should be taken into account, such as storage, customs office, freight and breaches of contractual commitments with clients and suppliers.
For Bouscayrol, these problems derive from the lack of human resource and the implementation of new analysis criteria, without prior knowledge by the client. He added that Many of the procedures are still carried out with physical and not digital files, which affects both the process and the time of attention of applications.
It is necessary to simplify the procedures and digitize the processes, both to comply with the current law and to really contribute to the competitiveness of the companies and the country, Bouscayrol said, in reference to the law for the digitalization of administrative procedures, in force since 2021.
Upcoming digital procedures
According to Cutzal, the digital platform for procedures could be officially launched over the course of this four -month period, although he stressed that there is still no exact opening date. However, he indicated that several processes have already been enabled, including the following:
- Health license
- Departmental and Metropolitan Transportation
- Import permit
- Sanitary Registration Certificate
- Sanitary Registration Updates