Businesses will suffer as delays mount in adapting new digital custom system

Today the European Commission offically publishes its report on progress on implementation the NCTS IT system which allows paper documentation to be replaced with digital files for custom officers and international carriers among the EU candidate countries. According to the report "Poland will have particular problems" and will not be able to launch the system before the deadline of June 30. Other candidate countries, like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, managed to achieve this goal. "It is in line with other delays in upgrading the IT of the whole Polish custom system. The NCTS must be launched before joining the EU," said one EC spokesman, Jonathan Todd. Polish officials have not yet prepared a strategy of connecting entrepreneurs to the custom network, while in the Czech Republic they can already buy the necessary software. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Gospodarka supplement, p. 3) M.M.