Turners Shipping has launched a web-based tool designed to assist companies with excise tax compliance. “It is a computerdriven system that provides members of the petrochemical industry with quick and accurate information about their excise exposure on a monthly basis, as well as real-time inventory management in the customs and excise, clearing and forwarding environment,” said Gregory Marks, national excise manager at Turners. Branded 'Athena', it integrates with logistics software systems and gathers and processes information on imports, exports, local removals and storage to make the calculations. “The software enables clients to provide Sars with records reflecting an audit trail ensuring full
tax compliance. System efficiency is important as there is a limited two-year period for companies to submit excise claims to Sars,” he added. Athena is modular, and clients can choose to use the entire suite of four modules, or just those that best suits their needs. The Excise and Levies Tax Accounting (ELTA) module has sparked the most interest among clients, according to Marks, as it provides a web-based interface to
consolidate, extract and compile excise duties and levies returns while providing executives with performance – tracking dashboards to ensure effective tax administration. “Not only does it automatically populate the excise return, it also gathers the relevant clearance documents and other supporting evidence to transactions ensuring full compliance,” said Gregory. The other three modules are designed to identify problem areas and alleviate system bottlenecks within the supply chain.
CAPTION: The system provides members of the petrochemical industry with quick and accurate information. – Gregory Marks
