October 1 is D-day for new MAS

OCTOBER 1 is the deadline day for the electronic switch-on of customs’ new manifest acquittal system. And it’s a date that all in the freight transport and forwarding sectors will have to be ready for, according to Dave Watts, Durban-based executive of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders-KZN (Saaff-KZN), because from that D-day they will all have to submit the necessary manifest data electronically – or not at all. It has been a subject of study at the SA Revenue Service (Sars) for some years. He told FTW that Saaff had sat in with the authorities at a series of meetings and monitored the creation of the new system. And it’s not only a good idea – adding the time efficiency of other electronic link-ups between customs and the freight industry – but an absolute necessity, Watts added. “With the millions of shipments coming into the country each year,” he said, “you just can’t clear and acquit them all manually.” Sars customs agreed. The current cargo manifest control process is an ineffective, slow, hand-driven process, they told FTW, and important operational information – for example, risk profiling data, and time of clearance – is not available when required. There are a number of problems with the traditional manual process, according to a Sars spokesman. It is time-consuming and non-integrated, FTW was told, and human resources are needlessly wasted on mundane and redundant functions. It also does not match the requirements of modern trade, there is a lack of proper cohesion between manifest control and clearance processes, and too many parties are involved in decisionmaking, which minimises control over the complete process. “The defects – coupled with increased imports and limited resources – made documentary cargo control extremely difficult,” said Sars. “Fraud and errors were not always detected in time, and remedial investigative action was costly. “In addition, ineffective control would open the way to smuggling and other irregularities, leading to a loss of revenue and exposing the trade, and the public at large, to harmful practices. Because of this, the commerce and industry sectors looked to Sars to reform the customs industry.” One complaint about the new system has already come to the fore in the forwarding industry, that “split boxes” – containers holding cargo for multiple destinations, but usually between Durban and Johannesburg – will, in future, need be cleared at the manifested port of destination, not at that final destination. Watts agreed, saying that split boxes were a considerable saving in supply chain costs and that clearance at first port of entry would impact on the efficiency of the process. “But we accept that we must comply with the law,” he said. However, it only involves a very small portion of the incoming containers, Watts told FTW – about 5%, he reckoned. Nonetheless, Saaff will be discussing this with Sars – along with a host of other matters in this very complex system – after the heat of the system implementation has died down. “On the split box issue,” said Watts, “the Saaff viewpoint is that it should be retained, and the system adjusted to cope – allowing for proper compliance while retaining the supply chain benefits of “split boxes”. “We will be submitting this, along with any other concerns of ours, when meeting with Sars after the system gets under way.”