Post Clearance Audit (PCA)

Guidelines for Post-Clearance Audit

2012 the WCO Council adopted the PCA Guidelines. These serve as an essential reference tool for Members as the first crucial stage in the process of implementing an effective PCA process. The Guidelines were updated in 2018 to highlight more clearly that PCA is a means to measure and improve traders’ compliance, structured around the overall strategy of motivating them to work voluntarily towards full compliance

DEFINATION

The post-clearance audit (PCA) process is a structured examination, after Customs has released the cargo, of the relevant commercial data, sales contracts, financial and non-financial records, physical stock and other assets of traders.

The purpose is to measure and improve the traders’ compliance, Customs administrations are also able to target their resources more effectively and create win-win partnerships with traders, who will be prompted to comply fully and voluntarily with the rules, as this will facilitate clearance procedures and hence trade.

Practice has also demonstrated that launching a fully-fledged audit system in a country with a significant informal economy is difficult. Nevertheless.