On 07 December 2022, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Executive: Licensing sent a letter to external stakeholders titled “RLA Trader/Taxpayer Representative (TTR) System Rollout”.
The full letter reads:
“The Registration, Licensing and Accreditation (RLA) system has undergone various enhancements since its launch. Currently customs clients have been able to capture and submit their Registration and Licensing (RLA) applications on the electronic RLA platform through eFiling.
The first phase of the project aimed to provide clients with a self-service functionality to submit their own applications electronically with the intent to later expand on this system. Whilst this system provided clients with the opportunity to transact with Customs Registration and Licensing digitally, one of the challenges was that the initial system functionality did not cater for agents who wanted to capture and submit these applications on behalf of the Customs clients.
On 09 December 2022 SARS is introducing a new system enhancement and process in this regard to enable agents to electronically submit the RLA applications on behalf of the Customs clients via eFiling. This functionality will allow agents or customs clients to electronically request and obtain permission from their customs clients or agents to allow them to submit such applications.
This forms part of the larger drive to encourage customs clients to make use of the digital platforms that SARS provides in support of strategic objectives 6, to modernise our systems to provide digital & streamlined services. For the first phase, only customs clients will be accommodated, but the other tax types (e.g. Excise, APT) will be brought in gradually in future as these products are on-boarded onto the RLA system.
For more information about RLA, please visit the RLA web page on the SARS website. www.sars.gov.za/customs-and-excise/registration-licensing-and accreditation/
For enquiries or assistance with any challenges in accessing the TTR system on eFiling, please call the SARS Contact Centre on 0800 00 7277. Clients may also use the centralised emails for queries.
For any queries relating to this request, please contact Norah Lethuka, Samuel Mosala, and Katlego Setlhalogile via email address RLARegistrations@sars.gov.za.”