A Study on the Effect of online System of Sri Lanka Customs on Shipping Lines` Satisfaction

Abstract

Sri Lanka Customs performs a vital role in the country. The functions performed by them include collection of government revenue as customs duty and other levy on behalf of a number of other government authorities and further the securing of national airports/seaports in relation to the export and import of both commercial as well as personal goods. With the introduction of the new online system, due taxes for the import and exports are collected by way of processing Customs declarations submitted to the ASYCUDA system.The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of the new online system on customer satisfaction. Primary data was collected via a questionnaire survey. The sample size used was 30 shipping lines and agents. The purposive sampling method was used to select the sample to include the larger shipping lines. The questionnaire consisted of fifteen questions covering five main factors. The SERVQUAL model was used to measure service quality. The questionnaire included a likert scale consisting of five options to obtain the responses. Respondents for the questionnaire were employees who were using the online system. During the analysis the KMO and Bartlett Test were used for the evaluation of reliability and SPSS statistical software was used to conduct the analysis. The correlation was analyzed using Kendall`s tau_b and Spearman`s rho tests. As per the findings the online system`s reliability, responsiveness and tangibility have a positive and strong effect on satisfaction of shipping lines, while assurance and empathy have a negative effect on shipping line`s satisfaction. Therefore as recommendations, the features relevant to assurance and empathy should be enhanced in order to boost the customer satisfaction of the online Customs system.