Systems will be ‘Ship-Shape’ ahead of Sars modernisation launch

As SA Revenue Service gears up for the October 1 launch of its Customs Modernisation programme, Gauteng-based specialist freight industry software provider, Ship- Shape Software, has embarked on a nation-wide educational drive to ensure that all of its clients are adequately trained in the new changes. In its most basic form, the Sars modernisation is part of an initiative to align South African Customs with international standards and to provide all stakeholders with an improved service, says Ship-Shape’s JL Koekemoer. “It’s a massive undertaking, and of high importance to the entire industry,” says Koekemoer. “Over the past couple of months Ship-Shape has been hard at work, focusing the bulk of its time and resources on preparing and upgrading its systems to ensure a smooth changeover for its clients come October 1, the official implementation date of the first phase as set by Sars.” The modernisation initiative as a whole focuses on a wide spectrum of issues – like implementation of risk-based assessment, a single registration process for all stakeholders, the Preferred Trader programme, as well as consolidating and updating the various disparate systems within Sars. However, the area of more direct concern to systems like Ship-Shape and its user-base will be the introduction of a “Procedure Category” system, says Koekemoer. “This system consists of a group of 12 single-character alphabetical ‘category codes’ (A – L), each containing various two-digit numeric ‘procedure codes’ (‘00’ – ‘91’). For instance, a traditional duty paid (‘DP’) declaration will now be referred to as ‘A11-00’, and a traditional ‘ELG’ entry will now be referred to as ‘H60-00’. “The single biggest challenge at this point is to get people to understand the relationships between the new CPC codes and the old, traditional Purpose Codes that have been with us for so many years.” Other than the introduction of Sars EDI just over ten years ago, the modernisation project can safely be considered the single biggest change in recent history, says Koekemoer. “After 23 years in business, Ship- Shape Software sees it as an exciting opportunity to be a part of this historical project which will certainly have a very positive impact on the industry in the long term.” Looking ahead, while Ship-Shape has certainly noticed an improvement in its customers’ volumes compared to the same period last year, most agents believe there is still some way to go before a full recovery from the low of the previous 12 months, he said.