Progress made by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) in digitally advancing its services has resulted in other government agencies (OGA) lagging behind in following suit with processes and systems.
Port Health, the State Vet, the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) and the National Consumer Commission (NCC), to name a few, rely almost entirely on manual applications and processes.
The NRCS processes an application for a Letter Of Authority in 90 days, and the NCC may take as long as three months to finalise a case after goods have been detained.
This currently causes delays, additional costs and frustration for traders.
As for Sars’ national single window (NSW) initiative, OGAs not linked to the NSW would have to be considered a non-tariff trade barrier, which would conflict with the revenue collector’s vision of trade facilitation.
- This post was created from a column. Read it here.
