Customs stops raise some hackles

Issue to be raised with Sars ALAN PEAT THE NEW move by SA Revenue Service (Sars) customs requiring all “stopped” airfreight consignments to be brought to Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) for examination – rather than a customs officer calling at the agent/shipper’s premises – has met with some considerable resistance. FTW has had three complaints from readers who seriously object to the cost and inconvenience of the new procedure. In the latest e-mail, a reader – who wishes to remain unnamed – said: “Apparently they changed the rules as they must do more random stops, and to do this the inspectors cannot afford travelling time. “The agent must now take the cargo to the airport. We have done this a few times but once inspected we must either leave a truck sitting at the airport waiting for the stop to be lifted. This can take a few hours because the examiners do more than one inspection, and then go and write reports and process paperwork. “The alternative is to bring cargo back to the warehouse, incur extra handling, transport costs and then deliver to the airline once the stop has been sorted out.” The reason he was so irate, he added, was that one of his stopped consignments had the final hand-in for the weekly freighter that very afternoon, but customs inspectors were booked-up for the day, and could only do the examination three days later on the Monday. That meant a week’s delay for the cargo, he said, “and surely this has to be bad for the whole economy”. Respecting his request for confidentiality, FTW can quote another nameless, but equally intense complainant, who accused customs of being “bureaucratic” and not trade facilitators as they have promised. But, there’s another side to the coin. Thore Saether, operations director of UPS Supply Chain Solutions, said that for his company “it’s not too much of a heartache” – with the number of stops not all that significant in a year’s business. He also told FTW that he felt that taking consignments for examination to customs was more logical than the “house call” procedure – especially when you look at the time, cost and staff number constraints the customs service faces. “We just have to adapt our processes to fit,” he added. Richard Mallabone, MD of Expeditors International and the director in charge of aviation matters at the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff), is equally accommodating. Of course, his company – operating an off-airport degroupage facility for customs – has a resident inspector, so is not a victim of the change. “But, in aviation matters, I don’t know any problems that cannot be solved,” he said. And that’s what Saaff is currently looking to do – “Find a solution acceptable to all in constructive dialogue with Sars,” according to Charles Speed-Andrews, product development director at Safcor Panalpina, and director at Saaff with responsibility for Sars matters. The association accepts that there are certain problems arising from the current examination procedure, and hopes that Sars sees this as “only an interim solution”. One problem that needs examined is that there is no facility at JIA for examination procedures. “It’s a bit of a problem having an examination in a car park – especially if your cargo is perishable or high-value and it’s a rainy day,” said Speed-Andrews. For the longer term, this is something that needs to be taken up at management level at Sars, while everyone decides what needs to be done, he added. But the matter’s on the agenda, and ties in with another area of constructive dialogue being planned, according to Paul Cheetham, chief operating officer of Micor, and chairman of Saaff. “There are a number of issues around this current area of complaint that we want to find solutions for,” he said. FTW was awaiting comment from Sars when this issue went to press.