Measuring progress against our intentions
We are seeking improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness for trade and travel.
Indicator: Clearance times for passengers and trade
In 2016/17 99.9% of trade transactions were processed within 30 minutes. This has been relatively consistent over the last five years, with only minor variations (the yearly results are within 99.5 to 99.9% over that period).
We continue to process over 90% of arriving commercial passengers within 45 minutes of their plane arriving at its gate. This period includes disembarking from the plane, walking to the Customs hall, duty-free shopping, and queuing for and being processed through Customs primary processing. The speed of passenger processing must be balanced against the need to effectively manage risk and to allocate our resources efficiently.
Maintaining or improving on our time-to-clear, particularly as passenger volumes continue to grow, will involve increasing the proportion of transactions we handle electronically.
Indicator: Proportion of transactions handled electronically
The increased use of SmartGate shows that the proportion of passenger processing handled electronically is increasing.
In 2016/17 99.9% of export transactions were processed electronically (excluding those referred for compliance checks); this has been steady since 2012/13. The proportion of import transactions handled electronically has increased slightly from 95.6% in 2012/13 to 96.3% in 2016/17.
We collected 99.3% of revenue electronically in 2016/17. This has increased from 98.6% in 2012/13.
Indicator: International reputation
New Zealand’s brand and reputation are of significant importance in attracting trade and travel. While the following ratings are not direct measures of Customs’ impact, they are indicative of the relative quality of New Zealand’s border administration.
| Measuring of international reputation | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security rating from economist intelligence Unit risk briefing | 7 out of 10024 (12th equal/ 180 countries) |
4 out of 100 (2nd Equal/179 countries) |
6 out of 100 (3rd equal/ 180 countries) |
| World bank's Doing Business Survey - cost to export goods | Not comparable25 | 86th/187 countries ($404) | 68th/180 countries ($404) |
| World bank's Doing Business Survey - cost to import goods | Not comparable25 | 79th/187 countries ($447) | 55th/171 countries ($447) |
| World Economic Forum's Enabling Trade Index - efficency of border administration | No study undertaken | No study undertaken | 23rd/136 countries |
Indicator: Unit costs for travel and trade processing
Since 2012/13, the volume of travellers has increased by 30.2%, while the cost of processing each traveller has decreased by 11.9%26
The total cost of goods processing as a percentage of the value of trade27; was 0.0762% in 2016/17, an increase from the 2015/16 cost of 0.0697%. The appropriation for 2016/17 was higher than that for 2015/16 (resulting in the increased goods processing cost for 2016/17 despite the higher trade value in 2016/17), at least in part due to the new employment agreement with higher remuneration (discussed in Border modernisation).
Footnotes
24100 = most risky
25Costs are reported in US dollars. The 2015/16 and 2016/17 results are not comparable to the results from the 2014/15 survey (including those reported for 2014/15 in our 2014/15 Annual Report) as there were substantial changes to the methodology – for example, the earlier survey and results included costs such as charges imposed by ports in the overall cost, and resulting ranking.
26This is based on the total appropriation spend for the Clearance and enforcement services related to passengers and crew output class divided by the total number of passengers and crew processed. The cost is also adjusted using the Reserve Bank’s wage inflation calculator.
27This is the total appropriation spend for the Clearance and enforcement services related to goods output class divided by the total value of imports and exports (based on Statistics NZ data). As a result, it does not directly relate to the level of Customs activity in relation to trade.