MARIA RAMOS reaffirmed Transnet’s stand on port concessioning policy when she addressed a Safmarine business breakfast in Johannesburg last week. Not ruling out the possibility of a joint venture, she stressed that it had to be commercially attractive. “What often happens is that the concessionaire comes in with limited capital to spend, needs to generate immediate return on that capital, and we’ve seen tariffs go up in places like Nigeria by up to 300%.” Sars stages country-wide SAD 500 workshops THE NEW single administration document SAD 500 – replacing all the other cross border documents in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) from October – is the subject of a round-the-country series of workshops which is currently under way. These are being conducted by SA Revenue Service (Sars) executive, Theo Ruiters. The sessions in Cape Town, Port Elizateth, East London and Durban have alaready been completed. Gauteng is scheduled for August 21 and 22; Lebombo-Nelspruit on August 24; Beitbridge on August 29; and Bloemfontein on August 31. These workshops could prove a vital source of information on “the nitty-gritty” of the details of the SAD 500 document, and on how to complete the form, according to Brian Kalshoven, MD of Beitbridge Border Clearing Agency and regional representative for Saaff. He stressed that knowledge of the new document in the clearing and forwarding industry was “slim”, and that this could be valuably enhanced at these workshops.
