New Customs Acts still 'in limbo'

The three new customs acts, which had original implementation dates of “about June 2015”, are still stuck at a public discussion phase – and sitting in limbo with the SA Revenue Service (Sars). When the idea was at its natal stage, the releases from Sars suggested that somewhere around June 2015 it would replace the current Customs and Excise Act with two new pieces of legislation – the Customs Control Act and the Customs Duty Act. Pieces of the existing legislation were to be repealed through the Customs Repeal Act and the bits that were left over would be renamed the Excise Duty Act. The process towards implementation has continued in the usual government stutter towards completion, but is currently just left up in the air at Sars. And companies that will be affected by the changes are getting anxious. FTW has been told that companies planning ahead to prepare themselves for compliance still haven’t got the finalised Sars rules to go along with the bodies of the acts. And the companies have got to be ready to go. It’s a switch-over that requires accurate timing, or import and export companies in the freight industry could be left without licences and out in the cold. As they have to move from the old act to the new acts, there are handover processes to be considered. And an analyst told FTW that the most important of these was that any company or person that wished to continue importing or exporting would have to re-register with Sars, within 30 days of the new legislation being put in place. This also applies to all licences issued by Sars under the existing act as well as a host of new licence applications required in terms of the new legislation. And, while there is no time limit within which Sars is obliged to process the registration and licence applications, he added, if an application is not received from the company wishing to register within the 30-day deadline, all existing registrations and licences issued will lapse. So what is happening with the acts? For an answer, FTW approached Malcolm Hartwell, master mariner and director of lawyers, Norton Rose Fulbright. But he professed to the same ignorance of the state of play with the acts. However, he rendered a suspicion that an apparently politically motivated reshuff le of top Sars management might very well be the barrier standing in the way of Sars’ rules finalisation. “As you know,” said Hartwell, “they have been published and are up for comment. “But it’s bizarre. Nothing has been covered. And we’ve no explanation about what’s happening – and can only be left to speculate.” But Hartwell did his own speculation, and suggested that the Sars management changes must have had a pretty disastrous effect on decision-making within the tax authority. And, in what appears to FTW to be a Zumafication of the management team at Sars, some pretty important heads have rolled. In early May, Sars announced in a rather a terse statement that the resignations of suspended deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay and head of strategic planning and risk Peter Richer had been confirmed with “immediate effect”. It also revealed that all Sars-initiated charges and related investigations had been withdrawn. And before this, at the time of Pillay’s first suspension, Sars chief of operations, Barry Hore, also resigned. The press has made the point that Sars is reeling from this high-level purge of senior tax officials by new commissioner Tom Moyane. And, said a Network24 release, “senior government officials now fear that Sars – one of the most stable state institutions pre-1994 – ‘may implode’.” The reason for this, it added, was that – since his appointment by President Jacob Zuma in September – Moyane has been targeting senior Sars officials “who worked alongside Minister Pravin Gordhan in building Sars into a world-class revenue collection service”. And this, according to Hartwell, is likely to delay decision-making at Sars and ministerial levels, which will hold up the three customs acts – and possibly not just them. INSERT & CAPTION Sars management changes must have had a pretty disastrous effect on decision-making within the tax authority. – Malcolm Hartwell INSERT 30 The number of days that will be allowed for re-registration once new legislation is in place.