The SA Revenue Service (Sars) has introduced a new digital customs management system at border posts, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday (22 August).<\/p>\n
“This is a very important milestone,” Gordhan told media at Megawatt Park in Sunninghill, Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
“We would be one of the few countries that has completely digitised customs processes in the world.”<\/p>\n
The new system would centralise the clearing of all import and export declarations and use a single processing engine. This would help trade by reducing red tape.<\/p>\n
The new system came into effect on Saturday after it ran concurrently with the old one for six months in a testing period. The digitised customs process would help legal trade to happen and happen faster, Gordhan explained.<\/p>\n
“There has been a massive reduction in time for those that are legitimate traders. What the system will do is to make it [trade] fully electronic, get many middle people out of the way… and businesses could now get their goods far faster.”<\/p>\n
In the 2012\/13 fiscal year more than 4.3 million containers representing R2.5 trillion worth of trade moved across the country’s borders, he said.<\/p>\n
Sars customs officials used about 16 million pieces of paper to process 5.5 million declarations received for the same period, he explained.<\/p>\n
“The customs management system now eliminates virtually 99% if not all of that paper,” he said.<\/p>\n
The system would improve competitiveness and reduce crime by detecting illicit goods more efficiently. It had better security and risk detection and people “can’t play around with the numbers”.<\/p>\n
Asked about the cost of the new system, Gordhan said it was difficult to say. He could not provide an exact figure.<\/p>\n
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