The General Administration of Customs will test a paperless reform at 12 branch offices in which enterprises apply for customs clearance electronically.

The initiative, which will begin on Aug 1, is expected to cut down the expense of paperwork, increase efficiency and improve the monitoring system. The reform will be tested in 12 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Ningbo and Hangzhou.

Paperless declarations enable enterprises to apply via the Internet, instead of going to Customs offices to submit paper forms, and it allows customs to monitor the trading information of enterprises more clearly.

The goal of the reform is to replace all paper declarations with the online ones in all Customs branches by 2015.

Six enterprises, including the Baosteel Group, were selected as the first group to participate in the trial of the reform.