Vouchers of Correction (VOC) On 7 March the South African Revenue Service (Sars) issued the following letter to external stakeholders under the title “Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Submission of Vouchers of Correction and Declaration of Determination Numbers and Proofs of Origin for Refund Purposes”. In terms of Government Notice R.814 dated 31 July 2009 declarations including vouchers of correction (VOC) were required to be submitted electronically on EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) from 1 August 2009. It has been noted that some clients still submit vouchers of correction for refund purposes through the manual process instead of the prescribed electronic (EDI) process. All EDI clients registered with Sars who wish to submit refund claims must submit vouchers of correction electronically. Manual VOCs will be rejected. It has further been noted that in instances where a determination number was issued, in accordance with the provisions of Sections 65 and 47(9) of the Customs and Excise Act No. 91 of 1964 and the relevant Rules thereto, prior to import clearances, that some clients have not been inserting such a determination number on the import declarations as required. We have also noticed that many proofs of origin (EUR.1, SADC certificates of origin and invoice declarations) that were issued before importation are only declared after import clearances have been made, resulting in unnecessary refund applications. Kindly note that these certificates must be declared at the time of import clearance for home consumption as contemplated in Rules 49A.20 (22) (a), 49B.10 (9)7(a) and 49D. 22 (24)(a) to the Customs and Excise Act No. 91 of 1964. As from 12 March 2012 penalties will be imposed where clients do not declare their proofs of origin as explained above, as well as in cases where determination numbers are inserted on vouchers of correction for refund purposes and not on the import declaration at time of clearance when available”. Road Cargo Completion Manual With effect from 12 March the Sars 8-page “External Completion Manual for DA8C and DA8C.01 – Road Cargo” will apply. The form DA 8C is titled “Application for Registration on the Automated Cargo Management (ACM) system”, and the form DA 8C.01 “Application for Registration on the Automated Cargo Management (ACM) system”. The manual describes the completion of forms for registration of cargo reporters on the ACM system in terms of the provisions of Section 8(1) and the Rules thereto for the purpose of receiving and processing of road cargo reports. Please note that “The Customs client code number or ACM system code number allocated to the applicant must be entered in this field. The general code number 70707070 may not be used for registration on the ACM system”. Customs Modernisation – Registration FAQs According to Sars, following the publication of a notice on its website relating to parties required to register with Customs before implementation of Customs Modernisation at Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, ands Swaziland (BLNS) land borders, it published a list of Frequently Asked Questions on 5 March. The publication at present contains 19 questions and answers, and the list will be updated as and when new issues arise.
