Ottawa – The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the second-largest revenue generator for the Government of Canada, collecting $40 billion a year in duties and taxes on all commercial goods imported to Canada. The aged technology that was being used to do this work was putting this revenue at risk. To address this risk, the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) project was initiated to update information technology systems and processes.
The CARM system has been operational for over a month and is supporting CBSA operations and trade chain partner businesses to account for their goods and pay applicable duties and taxes. To date, the new system has processed over 4.9 million accounting declarations, assessed over $6.8 billion duties and taxes, and collected over $4.7 billion in revenue.
On October 21, 2024, CARM became the official system of record used to assess and collect duties and taxes for commercial goods imported into Canada. Some of its key features are the ability for users to classify and account for their commercial goods, view their transaction history, and make payments. Since it’s launch, over 15,700 new businesses have registered on the CARM Client Portal, bringing the total number of registered users to over 115,000.
As expected with the rollout of a major digital systems like CARM, the CBSA anticipated initial challenges and a temporary increase in support inquiries. User inquiries to date have largely been related to portal registration and system availability, and the Agency recognizes these are valid concerns. As such, temporary transition measures to prevent delays or reduce the risk of penalties were put in place, including the use of a customs broker business number (BN15) to clear goods when needed, and the temporary suspension of financial security requirements for Release Prior to Payment participants.
Since the external launch of CARM on October 21, 2024, the CBSA reports:
- Total Commercial Accounting Declarations processed: over 4.9 million
- Total calculated duties and taxes: over $6.8 billion
- Total payments received: approximately $4.7 billion
- Client registrations since external launch: over 15,700
- Border wait times: no delays or impacts