Sars cuts clearance times from days to minutes

SA Revenue Service’s Customs Modernisation Programme (CMP) has substantially impacted the way trade is conducted in South Africa. Introduced in 2009, its goal was to achieve significant improvements in operational efficiencies for both Customs and traders – and the key to this has been moving from a complex, paper-based and labourintensive environment to a simplified, automated and electronic one. Underpinning this is an enhanced risk engine that has allowed Sars to focus on higher risk consignments while allowing legitimate and lower-risk imports and exports to move quickly through the country’s borders. The first major change under CMP was the introduction in November 2010 of clearance by Customs procedure to align all customs information requirements to version 3 of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Customs Data Model. This saw the migration from the use of purpose codes on declarations to procedure category and procedure codes (CPCs). It had the effect of decreasing unnecessary administrative tasks and increasing the tracking and tracing ability of declarations throughout their lifecycle and across the supply chain. The second phase was introduced in June 2011 and was implemented incrementally during the year at all the ‘international’ (non-Sacu) Customs offices. It saw the introduction of an advanced case management system, an enhanced inspection process, the electronic submission of supporting documents, an electronic release system and the establishment of four centralised hubs where all back-office processing now takes place. Towards the end of 2011, a mobile inspection solution was also introduced, further reducing inspection turnaround times. It saw the use of iPods linked to the Sars system during physical inspections which was a first for Sars. The focus then shifted to the Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) border posts, where all of these and a few other changes were introduced in February this year to help facilitate the speedier movement of trucks through the land borders. The CMP also saw changes in Sars policies to cater for the abolition of the general 70707070 code, and the requirement for all “foreign”-based importers and exporters to register as “foreign principals” and to conduct business with Sars by using South Africanbased “registered agents”. Coupled with electronic receipt of declarations, Customs also introduced electronic release messages on EDI and release notifications at land borders (CN1 and CN2), cutting out the need for stamped, paper-based release notifications. This means, in most instances, there is now an entirely automated, paperless process for trade. By the end of June 2012, all 17 BLNS border posts had implemented these changes, with trade starting to see the benefits. Now the average time for Customs to process a declaration can be anywhere from a few seconds, if there are no stops by the risk engine, to less than 30 minutes The average time taken for cargo to move through ports of entry or exit now is just 28 minutes. In the past this could take anywhere between a few hours to a day or two, especially if an inspection was still needed. For example, traders using Kopfontein border post would first have to submit their declarations at the Sars Zeerust office where they would be manually processed before the truck could go to the border post some distance away. Now everything can be done electronically by the trader before the truck even leaves for the port. A large registration drive during these rollouts also saw the number of people doing business with Sars electronically through Electronic Data Interface (EDI) increase dramatically. In January 2012, before Release 3, 95% of trade at land borders were using EDI for exports – at the end of July it was 98%; for imports it was 49% in January and 86% in July. “To sum up, in just over a year we have rolled out new processes, an advanced case management system and a state-of-the art risk profiling tool to all sea, air and land ports,” said Rae Cruikshank, Sars group executive, Customs operations. “Not only that, all our land borders have enhanced infrastructure to ensure 24/7 accessibility, WiFi and iPod capability to enable Customs officers to finalise cases wherever they are in the border post – a first in the world,” said Cruickshank. “Now 2D bar coding is effectively being used to ensure that goods are appropriately declared before they enter control areas and, more importantly, all Customs formalities are finalised before the goods leave the control area. Centralised processing has enabled us to concentrate scarce skills and apply them more effectively over a larger population of declarations. And we now have a centralised view of national risk which has positively impacted on our ability to effectively mitigate the risks." INSERT ‘The average time taken for cargo to move through ports of entry or exit now is just 28 minutes.’ CAPTION Rae Cruikshank … ‘declarations can be processed in a few seconds.’