-and set themselves up for big penalties
ALAN PEAT
ALTHOUGH THERE are all sorts of penalties for non-compliance under customs’ accreditation policy, there have been no indications yet of any companies failing the test, according to Andrè Erasmus, senior manager of trade and customs consultants, Deloitte.
But there are dangers of companies having been accepted as accredited by the SA Revenue Services (SARS), but then being found to be non-compliant in a post-accreditation SARS audit, he added.
This implies that the companies have not ensured that their compliance levels are up to scratch before applying to the authorities for accreditation. And, Erasmus added, if you are found to be non-compliant after being accredited you stand the chance of losing your customs licence to trade in imports and exports if the offence is bad enough.
Deloitte’s experience also shows that a lot of people are not up to par at the time of applying for accreditation.
“On the reviews we have done - for companies across the board in the trade sector - to get compliance standards up to scratch before they apply for accreditation, we have found the compliance levels to be very low.”
So it’s fair to say that a lot of companies already accredited probably don’t meet the standards - and could get caught out if SARS audits them.
And there’s a significant number of companies which have already applied and been approved, Erasmus added, and therefore have their heads on the block.
Figures he obtained from customs for FTW show that 1 026 companies have applied - of which 678 (66%) were accredited.
These 678 companies handle about 55% of all declarations handled by customs, Erasmus added, so the big boys in the industry are among the ones that have already been approved.
And, with Deloitte already having registered a low level of compliance in its review procedure, it would seem fair to say that a lot of the smaller non-accredited companies out there could be at even higher risk of non-compliance if they apply to customs without a full review to make sure they are up to standard.
