On 27 May 2011 the South African Revenue Service (Sars) released a letter titled “Upcoming Changes under Customs Modernisation Release 2”. According to the letter on 10 June 2011 the next major set of changes will be implemented under the Customs Modernisation Programme. Last year the entire declaration process was redesigned in line with international instruments like the Kyoto Convention and World Customs Organisation (WCO) Customs Data Model (called Modernisation Release 1). This included moving from using purpose codes for declarations to procedure category and customs procedure codes. Sars will be providing more detailed information in an electronic newsletter to trade titled Customs Connect, which it will be launching next week. This newsletter will also offer readers the chance to interact on the Customs Modernisation Programme.
