South Africa’s new customs bills have been approved by Parliament. Promulgation of the controversial bills is now imminent as they have been forwarded to the president for assent. The South African Revenue Service (Sars) confirmed to FTW that the translations had been finalised last week and that the new acts were now on the president’s desk. “The acts will, however, only come into operation on a date determined by the president by proclamation,” Sars spokesman Marika Muller said. Various industry stakeholders have also since been invited to participate in a Sars round-table discussion set to take place in the coming week or two. While the agenda of this conference remains unknown, speculation is rife that this will be the first glimpse of the all important rules and regulations that will guide the new customs bills. According to Mike Walwyn, chairman of the Cape Port Liaison Forum (PLF), this follows an undertaking by Sars in November last year during Parliamentary hearings into the new bills that they would consult with industry extensively around the rules and regulations. Walwyn said in this regard a working group from the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) had been consulting with Sars on an ongoing basis. “The rules and regulations are the really important documents for industry as many of the new provisions in the bill only state “as may be prescribed by the rules and regulations”,” he said. “So until we see what the rules and regulations are we won’t really have an indication of the real impact of the bills. Also the bills cannot take effect without the rules and regulations. The discussions that we will have with Sars now will be extremely important.” He said claims around the possible closure of inland terminals such as City Deep in Johannesburg had come up in discussions with Sars and all indications were that inland ports and terminals would continue to operate as per usual. Muller said Sars had absolutely no intention of interrupting legitimate trade. “The new customs legislation aims to create a balance between customs control and trade facilitation. With this in mind, Sars reviewed the current policy of allowing goods to move on the basis of a manifest to inland terminals such as City Deep without checks, since adequate information is needed to determine any potential risk in goods crossing our borders,” she explained. “Currently, containers are moved on the basis of a manifest – which has only a general description of the goods, with no details of value or origin. This description is based on hearsay information obtained from an entity in a foreign jurisdiction, which is merely reflected on the manifest by the carrier. As a result, goods can move inland without any South African authority knowing what a container actually holds.” Muller said Sars had a duty to control the movement of goods across South Africa’s borders in order to protect the fiscus, the economy and wider society. “The customs control bill envisages a clearance of goods at the first port of entry into South Africa. This will require a declaration of the true value of the goods, the origin of the goods, and a clear description of the goods. Additionally, the person submitting such a declaration must be in South Africa and will be held liable as regards the correctness of the information submitted.” Professor Sieg Eiselen from Unisa, a leading South African expert on International Trade Law, confirmed that it was incorrect for critics to state that the change in policy would force traders to change the terms of their contracts of sale and that it would result in carriers no longer issuing a through bill of lading. “Suggestions that all inspections of goods will be done at coastal ports like Durban are also incorrect. Sars has no intention of increasing inspections beyond available capacity at any port. Only high-risk goods (which are a minute percentage of imports) will be physically inspected at coastal ports, whilst mediumto low-risk goods (which represent the vast majority of imports) will continue to flow to inland terminals such as City Deep where they will be inspected,” said Muller.
