The Department of Revenue and Customs (DRC), Ministry of Finance, Bhutan conducted a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of the initial component of the Revenue Administration and Management System (RAMIS) Customs and Excise Module for focal officials of DRC on 25 May–01 June, 2015 in Thimphu, Bhutan. This technical training is the first in a series for RAMIS, DRC’s upgraded automated system for Customs clearance procedures to be rolled out in early 2016.

The Indian company CMC Limited, technical developers of the RAMIS project, conducted the training. Thirty-two DRC officials, including focal officials from the Regional Revenue and Customs Offices (RRCO) of Samtse, Samdrupjongkhar, Gelephu, Phuentsholing, Paro, and Thimphu, attended the UAT sessions. DRC's management team also participated in the UAT opening and closing sessions.

Outcomes included:

• A comprehensive report, including system observation/feedback submitted to CMC Ltd.;
• Schedule for systems adjustments and improvements, for delivery on August 2015;
• Schedule for End User Training of the of the first Customs and Excise Module to be conducted by DRC focal officials in relevant RRCOs in July 2015; and
• RAMIS modules to be shared internally among all divisions of DRC to harmonize the system requirement, and to prepare for the launch of RAMIS in full by January 2016.

RAMIS has been developed under both technical assistance and loan and grant funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), including the  SASEC Trade Facilitation Program, approved in 2012.

Bhutan is working to increase intraregional trade by increasing efficiencies in trade facilitation processes and procedures, in particular through operationalizing upgraded ICT systems to significantly reduce the number of required documents and other cumbersome procedures at the border to cut time and costs for traders. Bhutan has adopted a phased strategic upgrading to the new web-based transaction database RAMIS.

This initial RAMIS training is financed by technical assistance from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, administered by ADB.