Dealing with Customs and Excise has become easier for clearing agents, but more needs to be done to smooth the flow of cargo, according to Clifford Evans, customs liaison manager at Berry & Donaldson and member of the South Western Cape committee of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders and head of various government agency portfolios.
“In general, Customs has been pretty good over the last year or two. They take what we say into account much more than what they used to a couple of years ago,” he told Freight News.
An example is the inconsistent classification of vessel waste and processes at the different ports.
“Sars rewrote the policy document with input from the industry, and the waste disposal process has been finalised.”
There are regular information-sharing meetings with the different customs and Sars structures which provide the industry with the opportunity to make submissions.
Transparency does not, however, extend to information about projects which seem to have stalled.
“Customs, and Sars in general, have started a lot of things which have lost traction. An example is the national single-window customs system. It is two years down the line and they're still testing.
“So that raises the question of whether they initiated the pilot correctly and whether they consulted outside of Sars to help them with this product.”
- Read the full article in our "Clearing and Forwarding" edition of Freight Features, available this Friday, 7 January.
