June 17 will see the
implementation by South
African Revenue Service
(Sars) of a new manifest
processing system designed
to positively benefit road, air
and sea carriers.
“After the successes of
modernising the declaration
processing system over the
past few years, a decision was
made to modernise the cargo
management system – one
of the last remaining paperbased
processes in Customs,”
chief officer: Customs and
Excise, Jed Michaletos, told
FTW.
“Sars’ strategic plan is to
address non-compliance of
cargo report submission,
enable effective goods
accounting to ensure that all
appropriate duty has been
paid, and achieve meaningful
levels of cargo management,”
he said. “As paper acquittal
submissions
must currently
still be done
manually
by clients,
this process
also requires
automation
and
optimisation.”
The June 17
changes will
see a backend
system
migration of
the current
cargo reporting system
(ACM) to the Interfront
Customs Business System
(iCBS), which will have no
significant impact on the
Customs clearance process.
“However, there will also be
enhancements
to the cargo
arrival
management
process at
land border
posts which
will impact
road hauliers
and truck
drivers.”
In addition
Sars has
developed
an electronic
acquittal
manifest reporting
capability for compliant
cargo reporters and
an interim matching
capability for sea and
air modalities (only for
imports and only at master
bill level).
Sars believes the changes
will have numerous
benefits for trade and has
urged anyone who has not
yet registered to use its
electronic cargo reporting
system to do so as soon as
possible in order to submit
manifests electronically
without first registering.
More information on
registration is available on
the Sars website.
Anyone who has already
registered on the current
ACM system need not
apply for registration again
in order to use MPR.
Benefits for air
and sea carriers: • Clients will be
offered paperless
benefits (at master level)
for compliance with
electronic submission of
reports (with high data
quality).
Benefits for
roadfreight users: • Improved gate
processes at land borders
with the introduction
of a barcode and Cargo
Reference Number
(CARN) – which should
lead to faster turnaround
times
• Introduction of
electronic entry and exit
messaging to declarants
and carriers (Cusres 40
and 41)
• System enhancements
for improved transit
movement administration
