Industry happy at SAD roll-out

Streamlined electronic document heads over more borders ALAN PEAT AS WAS promised by SA Revenue Service (Sars) in the April 15 edition of FTW, the roll-out of single administrative document (SAD) – under test on the Trans-Kalahari Corridor for over the past year – is to continue next month. Added to its pilot project border posts at Skilpadshek, Ramatlabama and Kopfontein, the SAD becomes applicable at the Nakop and Vioolsdrift border posts from September 1 and at the Cape Town International Airport for cargoes destined for Namibia and Botswana from September 9. The pilot scheme was between SA, Botswana and Namibia and it cut border post waiting times and significantly reduced costs, according to Theo Ruiters of Sars Pretoria head office. This, he added, from the economies of scale, rationalisation and harmonisation of using one document instead of different documents for each customs authority along the route. “What this meant was that goods travelling from Johannesburg to Walvis Bay could, for the first time, travel on one set of documents for the entire trip,” Ruiters told FTW, “instead of being required to process CCA1s, BW500s and NA 500s.” This rationalising of the forms, processes and procedures, meant that times spent at the borders were significantly reduced in terms of down-time processing. According to Barney Curtis, the Road Freight Association (RFA) specialist on cross-border affairs, it’s also part of the move to have customs clearance through border posts done electronically – and to see transporters and agents become accredited. ”The SAD is a more complex document than the previous CCA1,” he added, “but it is easier to complete the document electronically – and this acts as an encouragement for transporters and agents to go electronic.” "It’s good news," says Brenda Horne, CEO of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI), “and promises to reduce the cost of doing business in Southern Africa. The more that can be done towards harmonising the documentation, the less time that will need to be spent in border crossings – and, therefore, the less the logistics cost.” Horne also expressed the hope that this project roll-out would get a high priority on the Maputo Corridor. But, although she wanted to see the adoption of the SAD as quickly as possible, she did place it second after what she described as “a more urgent need” to extend the commercial cargo clearing hours at the Mpumalanga-Mozambique border post to 24-hours-a-day. Something that Sars has indicated to Horne will be ready “in the very near future”. But, according to the Sars plan released to FTW by Ruiters, this full roll-out will take time – although it will extend to certain other neighbouring countries over the next 12-months. The plan is to systematically roll-out the SAD to the road transport borders with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (the BLNS countries) followed by those of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and finally domestically to the sea, air and rail modes.