SAD-day poses questions of interpretation

ALAN PEAT CHAOS AND pandemonium or a smooth changeover – that’s the question in the freight system sector with SAD-Day officially lurking just round the corner. From the declared starting date of October 1, all previous documentation for overborder movement of goods within the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) will be replaced by the single administrative document (SAD). Out go the DA500; 501; 504; 510; 514; 550; 551; 554; 600; 601; 604; 610; 611; 614 and the CCA1 – and in comes the SAD 500. However, we’d better get the dates sorted out. Although it’s theoretically timed for October 1, that’s a Sunday – so the first official day for SA Revenue Service (Sars) customs offices should be after reopening on Monday, October 2. But, in practice, this has not been the case. As Brian Mulligan of Freight Fusion Systems told FTW, he had had official communication from the Durban customs office, and presumed it would also apply elsewhere in the country. Customs, it told users, was going to shut down acceptance of the DA forms and the CCA1 with the bills of entry (BoE) from 12:00 on Thursday, September 28 – and only take the BoE and the SAD 500 from then on. Of course, the other big question – asked well before SAD-Day – is” What is going to happen on the Friday?” There’s room for two problems to raise their ugly heads, according to Chrissie du Barry, MD of Shipshape Software. The first is back office in the freight industry, where entry clerks are going to have to shift from completing the DA 500/CCA 1 combination, and get the right things in the right place on the new SAD 500 document. And that already has one small area of uncertainty, according to another executive of a freight system provider. Although the draft form of SAD 500 has been around for quite some time, the details in the final amendment to the Customs and Excise Act came up with a few “subtle changes” in format, he told FTW. Speaking on the optimistic side of things was Peter Curtis of Compu Clearing. "We've been ready for two months," he said, "and I think Sars is also ready. "All the electronic side of things is the same as it was, and all Sars has had to do is train its staff to read the SAD."