“TO GET stops reversed/ lifted exporters are having to fork out penalties, which might be justified in certain cases,” said a forwarder, “but in most instances the only impact is on corruption of data within the SARS export statistics.” This was from a forwarder who e-mailed FTW to tell us that sea freight exports from SA are being regularly stopped by Johannesburg customs. “But thereafter,” he added, “it appears that customs don’t have the manpower to assess the situation. They don’t have enough examiners, and apparently those that are on hand are working on imports - as this is where they are able to earn revenue for SARS. “A lot of penalties are being implemented on imports and fines are levied.”
