Forwarders contest new Customs EDI ruling

April 9 registration deadline looms Alan Peat FORWARDERS WHO wish to do business electronically with Customs have until April 9 to register in terms of the new Section 101A of the Customs Act. This is backed by the threat that if you don’t sign you don’t do business with the SA Revenue Services (SARS) by EDI (electronic data interchange). But the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) has dug in its heels, according to executive director Edward Little, and recommended that members do not sign. This because the new Section 101A is part of the ongoing debate between the association and customs about the conditions of the accreditation agreement and the amendments to the Customs Act. “Until we’ve reached agreement we have recommended that nobody should sign anything,” said Little. The forwarders’ gripe is that - with the introduction of the accreditation agreement and under the new amendments - all agents give up the protection offered by the old Section 99(2) of the Act. “This where the agent could not be held liable for the information submitted by their principals, where they could prove that they were not responsible for the default,” said Little. “But, if the new Section 99 goes through, we’ll be liable no matter what we do.”In meetings with customs last year the association thought it had “reached a satisfactory conclusion” with the authorities, subject to the legal department finalising it. “But this dragged on until October,” said Little, “when we found that the very thing we’d objected to in the accreditation agreement - that agents would be voluntarily sticking their heads in the noose - had now become a rope round our necks whether we liked it or not.” SAAFF went to some considerable expense for legal advice on the question. Said Little: “If we can’t rely on information from the principals, what can we rely on?” Negotiations are still being urgently pursued by SAAFF, Little told FTW at time of going to print. “But, if these fail, we will need to talk to customs at a higher lev