ZATCA Puts Its Two-Hour Customs Bet on the Scoreboard

On January 26, 2026, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority used International Customs Day in Riyadh to restake a two-hour clearance bet against a hard border. Governor Eng. Suhail bin Mohammed Abanmi told partners the same ports can stop smuggling and still move trusted cargo, in line with Vision 2030.

The figures were already on the record. ZATCA had logged 24 million narcotic and prohibited pills in 2025, and it still sells a green lane that can clear in about two hours.

A Scorecard in Riyadh on January 26

The World Customs Organization set the 2026 theme of vigilance and commitment, and ZATCA built its day around that line. Officials from government agencies and private firms in the customs chain filled the room for the International Customs Day ceremony in Riyadh.

Abanmi called customs an integrated national system that protects society and eases trade. He said ZATCA was pushing deeper links with other agencies, harder risk scoring, and newer inspection gear at land, sea and air ports. The pitch was a balance, not a choice: intercept banned and smuggled goods, and speed up legitimate cargo.

We need to demonstrate that strong and well-equipped Customs authorities are indispensable to national and international security, public health, environmental protection, trade facilitation and supply chain integrity.

Ian Saunders, Secretary General, World Customs Organization, January 26, 2026

Displays at the ceremony ran through four threads: joined-up customs systems, societal protection, tighter inspection at the ports, and domestic and foreign partnerships. Partners were honoured for that work. Abanmi closed by thanking staff at the ports and saying joint work with related parties is the basis for protecting society, facilitating trade, and building a more secure and sustainable future.

24 Million Pills Stopped at the Ports

The security half of the bet has a year-end tally. On January 1, 2026, ZATCA said calendar 2025 brought 1,884 cases of narcotic and prohibited pills and substances at land, air and sea customs ports, worked with the General Directorate of Narcotics Control.

ZATCA DRUG SEIZURES IN 2025

The 1,417 kilograms covered hashish, cocaine, heroin and other banned drugs. Officers found loads hidden in commercial shipments, vehicles and personal luggage, then moved with the narcotics directorate against receivers inside the Kingdom.

That haul is the public proof Abanmi pointed at when he talked about detection equipment and data analysis. It is also why a two-hour promise cannot mean every box is waved through. The sorter has to fail some cargo on purpose.

How a Trusted Shipment Clears in Two Hours

The speed half of the bet is older than the January podium. A royal order put 26 clearance agencies on a two-hour reply clock, and ZATCA spent 2022 and 2023 wiring that clock into every port. Ammar Al-Salami, ZATCA’s director general of Customs Operations, laid out the drop at a ZATCA conference: around 12 days in 2017, about 13 hours in January 2021, and about two hours by the end of 2022.

The two-hour figure is an agency decision window under the royal order, and it is also the clearance time ZATCA quotes for cargo that is ready and low-risk. It is not a guarantee for a red-lane inspection.

HOW CLEARANCE TIME FELL

1. 2017: Clearance takes around 12 days.
2. January 2021: Time stands at about 13 hours.
3. End of 2022: Time stands at about two hours for ready, low-risk cargo.
4. January 22, 2023: ZATCA takes the clearance within two hours program to all land, sea and air ports, timed with that year’s Customs Day.
5. March 14, 2024: The World Customs Organization commends the program and records 149 import and export services on Fasah.
6. January 26, 2026: Abanmi restates the dual mandate on International Customs Day.

Fasah is the national single window where the customs declaration is filed and other agencies see the same file. Importers can lodge papers 72 hours before a shipment arrives. Physical paperwork was cut from 12 documents to two, with the rest moving between agencies on the platform. ZATCA also signed service-level deals with seaport operators so boxes pulled for inspection are moved and unloaded on a set clock.

WHAT IMPORTER GUIDES SAY THE LANES DO

• Green channel: A clean, low-risk declaration can auto-clear, which is the path under two hours.
• Typical commercial file: Many shipments still take one to three business days once the file is in.
• Red channel: A physical inspection can add about two to five days.

The machine that makes the two-hour claim honest is that split. Trusted filers buy speed. Everyone else buys a wait. That is how Riyadh tries to be a logistics hub without opening the border.

The Logistics Rank Is Still 38

Vision 2030 wants a global logistics hub. The World Bank’s last full survey-based Logistics Performance Index, published for 2023, still has Saudi Arabia 38th in the 2023 logistics index, with an overall score of 3.4. The customs sub-rank is 47, with a score of 3.0.

SAUDI ARABIA ON THE WORLD BANK LPI

The climb is 17 places from 2018. It is not the finish line Saleh Al-Jasser, the minister of transport and logistic services, has set. In December 2025 he said the Kingdom wants a top-10 slot, and that logistics zones in the country had risen to 30.

The 2023 customs score of 3.0 is the part of the index that most closely tracks ZATCA’s bet. Infrastructure scored better, at rank 30. Timeliness was rank 35. A two-hour green lane can move those sub-scores. It has not yet bought a top-10 overall rank, and the World Bank’s newer LPI 2.0 series does not publish a single replacement league table.

Seizures Did Not Pause After the Speeches

The January ceremony is not how most people meet ZATCA. The authority’s public feed is a weekly seizure note, often under the line “sleep and be safe,” listing narcotics, tobacco, cash and weapons stopped at the ports.

For the week around September 26, 2026, that bulletin counted 1,263 smuggling cases: 62 narcotics items, 270 other prohibited goods, 928 tobacco cases, 17 cash cases and four weapons cases. An official ZATCA post on August 1, 2026 put the prior weekly count at 1,210 cases. On October 2, 2026, the authority said King Fahd International Airport in Dammam stopped 40,000 Captagon (amphetamine) pills hidden in an incoming postal parcel, and that two intended receivers were arrested with the narcotics directorate.

Those later notes do not replace the 2025 year-end totals. They show the security side of the bet still running eight months after the podium. They also show a communications choice. The two-hour clock is a trader story. The weekly pill count is the story sent to the public.

Three Days Later, a New Zealand Deal

On January 29, 2026, three days after the Riyadh ceremony, Abanmi signed a memorandum of cooperation with Christine Stevenson, chief executive and comptroller of the New Zealand Customs Service, on mutual help in customs matters. New Zealand Customs said the text covers bilateral customs work and information exchange. ZATCA posted the signing the same week.

وقع معالي المحافظ @abanmis مذكرة تعاون مع السيدة كريستين ستيفنسون الرئيس التنفيذي والمراقب العام بدائرة الجمارك النيوزيلندية؛ حول المساعدة الإدارية المتبادلة في المسائل الجمركية، حيث تهدف مذكرة التعاون إلى تبادل المعلومات والخبرات بين الجانبين.#زاتكا pic.twitter.com/op3IR26hrs

— هيئة الزكاة والضريبة والجمارك (@Zatca_sa) January 29, 2026

New partners fit the WCO brief Saunders set: share intelligence, borrow tools, and treat the border as a joint job. They do not settle a Gulf argument that still sits under the logistics-hub claim. Goods that enter the customs union at Jebel Ali can move on to Saudi buyers after duty is taken at the first Gulf point, which is the complaint Saudi traders keep raising against a one-point-entry rule written in 2003. A faster Saudi green lane competes with that routing. It does not repeal it.

So the January scorecard is still the right frame in October 2026. ZATCA can show 24 million pills stopped in 2025 and a two-hour lane for filers who stay clean. The World Bank still has the Kingdom at 38th. The weekly seizure note is still the authority’s loudest public product. And on October 2, 2026, officers in Dammam were back in a postal bay, pulling 40,000 pills from a parcel while the green lane ran for someone else’s cargo.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Is International Customs Day?

It falls on January 26 each year, the date in 1953 when the Customs Co-operation Council, now the World Customs Organization, held its first session in Brussels.

How Can Smuggling Be Reported to ZATCA?

ZATCA takes tips on 1910 inside the Kingdom, on 009661910 from abroad, and at 1910@zatca.gov.sa, and it says accurate reports can qualify for a cash reward under confidentiality rules.

Which Two Documents Still Have to Be Handed In?

Under the two-hour program the papers that still have to be submitted physically are the invoice and the bill of lading; other files move between agencies on Fasah.

Where Did Gulf Neighbors Sit on the 2023 Logistics Index?

On the same 2023 World Bank table, the United Arab Emirates ranked 7th, Qatar ranked 34th, and Singapore ranked 1st, which is the gap Saudi Arabia is trying to close from 38th.

Who Has Led ZATCA Since the Customs Merger?

Eng. Suhail bin Mohammed Abanmi has been governor since May 2021, after serving as governor of the General Authority for Zakat and Tax and as acting governor of the General Customs Authority.