In a letter dated 20 November 2018, the Customs & Excise Operational Centre of Excellence Office of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) stated that during roadshows and various engagements with trade, it had regularly referenced the ‘three main focus areas’ of the New Customs Acts Programme (NCAP) - Reporting of Conveyances and Goods (RCG), Registration, Licensing and Accreditation (RLA) and Declaration Processing (DPS). The letter deals with the second phase of the RCG.
On 07 December the second phase of the RCG, involving part-shipment movements of goods across land borders, will be implemented. This phase will mainly impact road carriers, clearing agents and service providers/bureaus. Sars envisages introducing a system change which will allow multiple trucks carrying the same consignment - Local Reference Number or LRN - to be electronically marked for arrival and exit at border posts. This system change will require road carriers to indicate, on their electronic road manifests, that the cargo they are carrying is a part-shipment movement. Road hauliers also need to indicate, on the last manifest, that it is the final truck carrying the part-shipment.
The first release of the DPS, which was earmarked for December 2018, has been delayed and will only now be piloted in early 2019, and its operationalisation at a later, unspecified, stage. Sars indicates that the rules are being considered.
According to Sars the first tactical release envisages requirements regarding the processing of an incomplete or provisional clearance declaration, which must be completed by the submission of a supplementary declaration within a prescribed time period. Incomplete or provisional and supplementary entries together constitute a single indivisible bill of entry under the Customs and Excise Act, 1964. The use of this “two-step procedure” will be limited to only certain Customs Procedure Codes (CPC) and certain commodities.
Sars envisages that a new “Declaration Type” field will be introduced to identify whether a submission is a regular, incomplete, provisional or supplementary declaration. This change is aligned to the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and is expected to reduce the large volumes of amendment clearances currently submitted, also known as Vouchers of Correction (VOCs).
Sars is said to be planning a number of further engagements with trade.