South Africa’s new customs
legislation will be phased
in over two years to ensure
industry can absorb it
in terms of technical
developments and financial
expenditure – starting early
this year (2017).
“Global best practice
in the implementation
of large-scale legal, IT or
operational process changes
confirms that phased
implementations have a
better chance of success
when compared with “bigbang”
implementations,”
Sandile Memela, South
African Revenue Service
(Sars) spokesman told FTW.
“The phased
implementation is also
based on industry priorities.
The provisions of the
new customs control act,
when overlaid against a
typical supply chain of the
international movement of
cargo and the role-players
involved, highlighted
the value-add areas that
needed to be prioritised for
development and delivery
in the initial phase of the
implementation.”
Implementation is set
to begin within the next
few months when the
registration, licensing and
accreditation (RLA) process
kicks off.
“Three projects were
launched under the New
Customs Control Act
Programme (NCAP),
namely RLA, Reporting of
Conveyances and Goods
(RCG), and Declaration
Processing (DPR),” said
Memela. “Within these
projects specific deliverables
have been prioritised for
delivery over one or more
phases – taking into account
factors relating to capacity,
funding, etc. Customs
Sufficient Knowledge (CSK),
as the first deliverable
of RLA, is scheduled for
implementation in the first
half of 2017. This will be
followed by first-phase
deliverables of the other
projects in 2018.”
He said the staggered
sequencing of the planned
implementations reflected
relevant inter-dependencies
that had to be considered in
landing the various projects.
“For example, both the
RCG and DPR processes are
dependent on RLA for client
validation, whilst DPR,
in turn, is dependent on
RCG for cargo arrival and
departure data.”
Industry has welcomed
the phased approach
saying it allows for better
preparation on their part
and would result in far
greater success.
Customs to phase in new legislation over two years
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