SARS scale-down reaches happy conclusion in Pietermaritzburg

Alan Peat
LAST YEAR'S furore in Pietermaritzburg about the potential closure of the SARS office in the capital city seems to have abated somewhat.
Last July, however, individual businesses, the local chamber of commerce (PCCI) and importers and exporters were up in arms about the "detrimental implications" of SARS' national plan to "re-engineer" - and the decision to downsize the Pmb office to a "Service Point Centre".
This has already happened, and the bulk of the SARS tax staff in Pmb are being relocated to the Durban regional office.
But, according to Andrew Layman, director of the PCCI, the chamber has established a valuable relationship with the local SARS officials.
"We have also been kept abreast of the Siyakha ("we are building") restructuring process," he told FTW. "This will see the local office transformed into a so-called service centre offering frontline staff to resolve taxpayer queries, and including a call centre.
"We have been assured that the change will result in better all-round service."
But Layman is referring to the tax side of things, and the customs and excise section is a different matter, according to local customs specialist Alan Hastings.
"Last year we managed to get the SARS to agree to retain the status quo on the customs side," he told FTW.
"We're happy that we managed to keep the customs department intact, with the five staff members able to handle the daily documentation; their inspection programmes in depots; and control of customs-bonded warehouses, rebate stores, and excise-related businesses."
If last year's action had not been taken, Hastings added, he feared that the customs and excise side of the SARS office would also have been reduced to "one person and a telephone".
But the overall feeling in the town is, now that the erosion has started, it could be like a nest of termites, with Pietermaritzburg "slowly being gnawed away", said one city councillor.