Concessions do little to ease delays

There are continued concerns around
the issuing of letters of authority by the
National Regulator for Compulsory
Specifications (NRCS), with industry
complaining of little benefit from
concessions made by the organisation.
Parliament’s portfolio committee
on trade and industry in October
last year instructed
the regulator that
administers compulsory
specifications and other
technical regulations
of imported goods to
process and issue all
letters of authority
within 120 calendar
days as opposed to the
120 working days that
had been applied in the
past.
“It’s not really made such a
significant difference as goods are
still held up,” said an industry source.
“If one is talking about a non-tariff
barrier to trade there is no better
example than this. Parliament has
put a lot of pressure on them and it
is believed that the organisation has
admitted it has a problem and will
need to use the South African Revenue
Service (Sars) risk engine in future,
but this will only happen at the end
of 2017. In the meantime trade will
continue to be severely impacted.”
The NRCS randomly stops
containers for inspections, unlike other
government departments. The Sars
risk engine is highly rated and would
bring major change
should the organisation
use it, said the source,
but 2017 was still very
far off.
“In the meantime
there is cargo arriving
today, tomorrow and
the next day. What do
we do with that in this
inflexible system?”
Complaints from
industry on the
operations of the NRCS have been
ongoing for years and a call has been
made to summon the organisation
back to Parliament.
“There is no doubt that from an
industry perspective the NRSC hinders
progressive growth in the economy,”
said the source.
INSERT
The NRCS will need
to use the Sars risk
engine in future but
this will only happen
at the end of 2017.