Modernisation at Lebombo gets the thumbs-up

SA Revenue Service’s customs modernisation process is having a positive impact at Lebombo border post, according to Sars spokesperson, Adrian Lackay. Lebombo was the first international land border post to go live with what is being called “Release 2” on September 3. This included: • The introduction of an electronic case management system, called Service Manager; • A new inspection process; • Electronic submission of supporting documents; • New Customs Status Codes, and • An electronic release system reducing the need for paper and the authorising stamp at branches, resulting in reduced turnaround times Release 2 has also seen the centralisation of all back-end processing, with electronic declarations for Lebombo being processed at OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) or Doringkloof during office hours. “In fact,” Lackay added, “very little processing is now taking place at Lebombo, as manual submissions are being phased out and clients encouraged to operate in an entirely electronic environment.” This has been gladly accepted by clearing agents at the border – with highly positive comments about the changes being received by FTW. “Vehicles are moving through the border much quicker,” said Leticia Schutte of Clear Fanatics Import & Export. “The system cuts out a lot of time, and now there are very few queues of trucks with a much better flow across the border.” Lorraine Stander of Baseline Import and Export agreed, saying the company’s clients were very happy that things were going so quickly. “We had a client’s truck coming from Johannesburg today and when it arrived at the border it was through within minutes, as all the processing had been done in advance.” Several of the agents also spoke about the close co-operation between customs and agents during implementation, which, according to them, had helped enormously in understanding and adapting to the changes. “It seems to have built up greater trust between Sars, clients and ourselves. I take my hat off to the customs ops team at Lebombo, as they have kept us informed every step of the way,” said Rodney Cresswell of Röhlig- Grindrod. Cresswell added that the entire Röhlig-Grindrod office was very excited about the changes. “Everything is going electronic,” he said, “which is great, as you can find out exactly where your entry is in the system. At the same time, once your document is in the system, you don’t know who will release it, which I think is fantastic as it closes the door on corruption.” Another change which the agents said had helped a lot was the introduction of new customs response (Cusres) status codes, which Sars added to its system on the weekend of September 24/25. An additional six codes were introduced to enhance the trader’s awareness of what is happening to their clearances during processing at Sars. “Next up on the customs modernisation journey will be the implementation of Release 2 at Beitbridge on the weekend of October 8,” Lackay told FTW. “It will then be rolled out to the Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) border posts early in 2012, along with a brand new passenger processing system.”