Sars delays registration process

The South African Revenue

Service (Sars) will miss its

proposed launch date of

April 1 for the Registration,

Licensing and Accreditation

process (RLA) of the new

customs acts.

Sars has consistently

stated that the new customs

act programme (NCAP) – of

which RLA is the first phase

– will be implemented by no

later than the middle of the

year. But customs experts

are sceptical about this

deadline.

NCAP will see the new

legislation implemented in

several phases between 2017

and 2019.

Legal experts maintain

that the legislation –

promulgated in 2013 – can

only take effect once the

rules guiding the acts are

finalised and published.

This process is under way

with no final dates available

although the public

commentary process has

been completed.

Freek van Rooyen, a

partner at Shepstone &

Wylie, commented: “The

legislation – even only

aspects of it – can only

be implemented once the

process around the rules

has been completed and

finalised and a final set of

rules is available.”

It is also believed that the

Sars system is only 70-80%

ready and is simply not able

to handle registrations as

yet.

According to Clifford

Evans, a customs manager

in the Western Cape who

has been involved in the

rules commentary

process, RLA can

only take place

once clients have

successfully

completed the

Customs Sufficient

Knowledge test.

This process, he

said, had as yet not

been implemented.

He said it was

very difficult

to allocate a

time frame for

implementation.

Commenting

on whether the

legislation could

be implemented

without the

rules, he said

there were

different

opinions on

the matter.

“During the

parliamentary public

hearing in 2013, Sars

gave its commitment that

it would not implement

the new legislation until

the final rules had been

published and it is still

the view of many that the

new acts cannot be made

law without the rules

which govern them.

However, I think it is

unlikely that Sars will wait

for the rules if they do not

have a direct impact on the

phase being implemented,”

he said.

A Sars spokesman

confirmed to FTW that

discussions around

NCAP were ongoing but

no further comment was

available from the revenue

authority when this issue

went to press.