Customs’ new manifest acquittal causes some confusion

Alan Peat CUSTOMS HAS launched an automated manifest acquittal system (MAS) for sea imports, which requires extra information on bills of entry, according to Roger Shaw, m.d. of Clearing Support Services. “This so they can ensure that all items on a manifest have been cleared and duty paid,” he said. “It’s obviously designed to combat fraud, and increase revenue.” On the information required on DA 500, DA 504, DA 510 and DA 514 bills of entry are a number of what customs terms “key fields” in linking the manifest to its corresponding entry (or entries) They are: l Master Cargo Carrier Code; l Transport Document Number; l Transport Identification; l Carrier Code; l Conveyance Number; l Cargo Carrier Code. Effective since June 6, it is fairly likely to cause confusion in the industry, according to Shaw, with a potential problem in getting some of the codes that are now required. “For example, you need a code for the creator of the master bill of lading; a code for the actual shipper; a code for the creator of the house bill; and the radio call sign of the vessel. “But a temporary measure is that customs agreed to allocate codes for “unknown” in the short-term, to ease the plight of agents who don’t know the shipper’s code.” When it comes to the ship’s call sign, Shaw suggests that these be attached to the vessel listing in shipping schedules. “Confusing,” he said, “but in time, everything will be sorted out.” And if you’re looking for the respective codes you’ll need, and a bit of explanatory detail, check out the SARS website. All the code tables can be found on www.sars.gov.za - by following the path: e-commerce, MAS, download the MAS Code Tables. The Carrier, Master Cargo Carrier and Cargo Carrier Codes can be found in the table called “Cargo Carrier.csv” - whilst vessel radio call signs can be found in the table called “Transport.csv”.