Customs puts a ‘stop’ on errant agents

IF YOU are an airfreight agent with any customs stops at OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) still sitting from last year and, as yet, not acquitted, you could go out of business. What at first glance looked a reasonably innocuous release from SA Revenue Service (Sars), announced that – at the customs office at Ortia, and effective from January 14 - all agents who have outstanding stops and who have not responded to Sars letters sent out last year will be placed on a stop list. But then it became threatening. The last sentence read: “This effectively means that no releases will be issued to those affected until the stops have been finalised.” It’s a “very serious” threat indeed, according to Alwyn Rautenbach, MD of Airlink Cargo, and chairman of the Air Cargo Operators’ Committee (ACOC) – although not one that faces his own industry sector. “It’s the agents who would get hit,” he said. And, in a moment of forgetfulness or inefficiency, even a big forwarding agent could find itself sidelined by Sars. “Anyone who gets caught would not be able to handle any further incoming cargo,” Rautenbach added, “and face clients with possible delays and demurrage.” But not if they’ve got their risk assessment wits about them, according to Richard Mallabone, MD of Expeditors International, and airfreight director at the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). However, he pointed out, anyone in the airfreight forwarding industry who deals with imports from what he termed “shady characters” – whose imports were found to be illegal, or whose documentation was questioned by Sars – could get caught in the net. That, Mallabone told FTW, was because importers and agents were held jointly liable under Section 99 of the Customs Act. “You should vet your customers and do a risk assessment,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, we don’t do cargoes off-the-street, but only deal with credible customers.”