Countdown begins to Customs modernisation

Talks are under way that could see a postponement of the October 1 launch of the Customs Modernisation Programme. The date may be extended to the end of October, but FTW was awaiting confirmation from SA Revenue Service when this issue went to press. The freight industry has in the meantime been hard at work gearing up its systems and educating its customers on the way forward. A series of nation-wide training sessions undertaken by the SA Association of Freight Forwarders and Sars Academy attracted clearing and forwarding agents, importers and exporters as well as IT service providers and was so oversubscribed that additional sessions had to be scheduled. “The response has been overwhelming,” Saaff training director Tony d’Almeida told FTW, “with more than double the applicants for the spaces available.” The level of interest appears however to be paralleled by the level of ignorance, evident from the many queries directed to FTW. In a nutshell, the Customs Act makes it mandatory for all importers to transact electronically with Sars, Saaff’s Customs director Johan Marais told FTW. “Sars has made provision for smaller operators – a shipper who does less than 20 transactions in a month has the option to submit manually – but Sars would then have to recapture the information which opens the door to possible errors. The new system will see the introduction of Customs Procedure Codes which will replace the current Purpose Codes. “Sars has moved at an astonishing rate and Service providers ready for October launch taken us along with them,” said Marais, “and service providers have been hard at work preparing their systems for the changeover.”