October deadline looms for goods stored in bond

IT LOOKS like a number of bonded warehouse operators could get badly caught out under the new legislation in the Customs Act, according to Quintus van der Merwe of Shepstone & Wylie's international transport and trade division.
This as many operators seem to have taken no notice of the conditions of the new section 19 of the act which states that no goods may be stored in
a bonded customs warehouse for a period of more than two years (it used to be five years) as of the end of July this year.
And it also slaps down an October 31 deadline before which these offending bonded goods must either be entered for home consumption or re-exported.
"That is fast approaching," said Van der Merwe, "yet it appears that many operators have not yet made
provision for the change in the act.
"Failure to comply with this new regulation will
be both inconvenient and expensive."
With the new amendment to the Act, permission from the commissioner is needed for goods to be stored for a period longer than two years,
Van der Merwe added.
"Such permission shall only be granted in circumstances which the commissioner, on good cause shown, considers to be reasonable," he said, "and may be subject to further conditions imposed by him.
"Goods that have already been stored in a customs warehouse for a period longer than two years must be dealt with appropriately by that deadline date, unless the commissioner grants an extension."