Industry challenges Customs over 'impossible' DA550

Alan Peat THE DA550 - the new export bill of entry - has raised the ire of the freight industry which describes it as an “impossible” document. Some sections, FTW was told, are impossible (or near impossible) to fill in correctly. At the same time, customs is slapping fines of R500 upwards for incorrect entries on the DA550. When the idea was mooted - with the DA550 consolidating the previous DA25, DA26 and DA29 documents - it was a welcome simplification of procedures, the industry thought. But in practice, the new bill of entry (BoE) has a number of glaring glitches, according to industry spokesmen. “There are a number of requisites for the DA550 that are impossible to comply with,” Edward Little, executive director of SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) told FTW. And, while SARS (SA Revenue Services) has allowed a 3-month extension on the questioned clauses, the forwarding To page 12 From page 1 industry is asking why it was introduced in its existing format in the first place. “One demand,” said Little, “is that you must enter the bill of lading (BoL) number on the application for the bill of entry.” But the BoL, he added, is effectively a receipt from the shipping line issued only once the line receives the container at the ship’s side. “This, therefore, proves a complete impossibility,” said Little. Another near impossibility - unless current port procedures are radically altered - is the requirement for the DA550 to have the container (or seal) number filled in on the form. “The process at present is to submit the BoE to Portnet,” Little said. “Only then can you apply for a container and get its number.” This, he added, is under negotiation. A third, almost insurmountable, problem raised by the DA550 is its demand for the vehicle registration number to be appended when there is land movement of the export. “A large number of forwarders use transport brokers who will find a truck running the right route for you at the time you need the shipment made,” said Little. “Therefore - at the time of the BoE - the forwarder won’t know who the transporter is, never mind the registration number.” Also, Little queried, what happens if, for example, the truck breaks down en-route? “In a lot of cases the haulier will allocate another truck to complete the run - so there’s a new number and a contravention of the entry on the bill.” A fourth difficulty - not impossibility - is the demand for the DA550 to include the point-of-exit of the goods. “All very well,” said Little, “if you are shipping your exports out through the Port of Durban. But what about overborder movements?” One example of how this problem could arise, he hypothesised, would be a truck driver heading for an early-closing border post and with not enough time to spare. So he heads for border post B which closes some hours later. This would immediately contravene the conditions of the DA550. Three months have been allowed for all this to be sorted out, but not led by customs as should be expected, according to Little. Instead, SAAFF has taken the initiative and has called all the relevant industry bodies for a meeting with customs. Amongst the forwarder members of SAAFF, another complaint has been loudly voiced. In the words of Alan Elton of Renown Freight who summarised what a number of other forwarders told FTW: “It seems that when customs introduced the DA550, they just hadn’t done their homework.” Also, it was added, the R500 fine that is being slapped on errors in DA550s across-the-board, is causing “huge unhappiness” in the freight forwarding industry. Apart from that, Elton highlighted the fact that in removals in bond (RIB), if you don’t get an acquittal within 30-days, then you can get hit with a fine of R1 000 upwards.