Customs extends record-keeping requirements

ALAN PEAT IN THIS year’s budget, minister of finance Trevor Manuel said that the Customs and Excise (C&E) Act was outmoded in terms of its private record-keeping requirements. To bring it up-to-date, Manuel proposed that the act be aligned with other taxes. In effect, this will demand that everyone in the customs client chain will have to retain their records for at least five years. Is this simple-sounding adjustment actually important? Yes, said Riaan de Lange of SA Tariff and Trade Solutions. “At the moment,” he told FTW, “you only need to keep records of customs transactions for two years. “Making it five years will have a big impact on the record-keeping procedures of everyone who is ultimately involved in moving cargoes.”