A total of 54.5 percent of customs declaration forms processed on August 30 by customs officials of the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone were electronic.

A total of 48.3 percent of such forms were paperless on average in August.

The number has risen since customs in the free trade zone began a paperless office reform at the end of last year – growing from 7.3 percent at the beginning of the year to 16.1 percent in June, and reaching 48.3 percent in August.

The trend shows that paperless declaration forms have become popular among enterprises in Zhangjiagang of Jiangsu province.

The Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone, as a pilot area, encourages enterprises to use electronic declaration forms for the import of cotton.

In the past, enterprises had to go through several steps to declare import taxes, wasting a lot of time. Now the process has been simplified greatly thanks to the paperless reform.