The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has denied that it sometimes outsources the inspection of inbound containers detained at the country’s ports.
This follows after an importer approached Freight News last week Friday* saying that one of five containers holding marketing materials imported from China were flagged by customs for inspection at the Port of Durban.
He said his freight forwarder told him he would have to bear all the costs, including inspection duties contracted out by Sars.
Clifford Evans, a customs liaison officer at Berry & Donaldson, said it was most unusual, if not completely unlikely, that Sars would be outsourcing a function it was perfectly capable of performing itself.
Sars has since then confirmed this, saying: “Customs uses various methods of inspection, which can include the container being scanned through the cargo scanner as well as being unpacked at a licensed depot.”
In this instance, the TEU was moved to SA Container Depot, whose charge will be added to the importer’s account.
Sars added that when containers were seized it was usually on suspicion of its goods not complying with the relevant legislation regarding where the duty and VAT had not been paid by the client.
It unequivocally stated: “Sars Customs do not outsource inspections; this is done by our operational teams. Costs will be charged by the depot for the unpacking of the consignment.
“It must also be mentioned that various other government departments also conduct inspections in the port.”
As for involving the National Consumer Council (NCC) to inspect goods, which could potentially result in an outsourced charge as Evans pointed out, Sars confirmed this in part. “The NCC is involved when concerns are raised with the labelling of the product, such as clothing instructions of composition of clothing, shoes, etc.”
It didn’t say anything about incurring contracted costs in this regard, and whether such costs were passed on to the importer.
It is presumed that, as a member of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, the NCC falls under the ambit of a government department and that no related charges will be passed on to the importer.
* Read this for context: https://tinyurl.com/yckueheu
