Executive Committee Meeting. Mowbray Golf Club, Raapenberg Road

Transcription

1 Circular No. 21/ th October 2018 Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting held at the Mowbray Golf Club, Raapenberg Road 09 th October 2018 at 12:00pm SAAFF Exco: Basil Hanival (chair) Barloworld Logistics Mike Walwyn Nexlog Clifford Evans Berry & Donaldson Faldie Kamaar Kinetsu World Express Llewellyn Osborne GAC Laser Jean Pool DSV Johannes Fouche Allport Cargo Logistics In attendance: Juliet White Independent Admin Apologies: Peter Meihuizen Meihuizen International JD van der Merwe Bidvest Panalpina Logistics Jonathan McDonald Expeditors Zahid Hassan Meihuizen International 1. Notice of meeting Action Basil opened the meeting at 12:10 and noted the apologies. Johannes Fouche was welcomed to the meeting and will be joining the SAAFF Western Cape Executive Committee going forward. 2. SAAFF Competition Compliance Statement Action SAAFF strictly prohibits any agreement, contract, arrangement, understanding, cooperative or coordinated conduct, practice, or discussions between members, the purpose or effect of which is to directly or indirectly fix a purchase or selling price or any other related trading condition, or to divide markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories or specific types of goods or services, or to tender collusively. It is mandatory for all members and their representatives to familiarise themselves with SAAFF s written policy on competition compliance which is available on request.

2 ~ 2 ~ 3. Confirmation of the minutes of Exco Meeting held on 11 th September 2018 Action The minutes of the Exco Meeting, held on the 11 th September 2018, were proposed by Basil and accepted by Clifford. 4. Finance 4.1 Bank Accounts Action Internet accounts, forwarded by Juliet, for Exco are as follows: Current account balance R Investment account balance R The profit and loss for September was circulated. All items are well under budget, except for operational costs. The outstanding transfer of funding between the investment account and current account needs to be raised by Jonathan at the next national board meeting (25/10/2018). J Macdonald 4.2 September Expense Claim Action The following expense claim for September has been presented for submission to SAAFF National: Secretarial Expenses R9 452,85 SAAFF WC September Exco Meeting R1 353,80 Cape Chamber of Commerce Fee R1 384,17 B Hanival Parking R 323,20 Total Claim R ,02 5. Standing Matters 5.1 Customs Matters Action Basil gave feedback on the National Operations Forum held in Pretoria. He commended the Western Cape for being the only region that has national issues raised at the forum. The notice regarding refunds and delays in draw backs was sent out to members yesterday ( ). Basil said that the slide attached to that mailer indicates that escalations have dropped significantly from over 3000 to only 338 in August 2018, which is a testament to what is happening in the Operations Forum. While there are still isolated cases, there seem to be fewer problems raised. Scanner stops have decreased in the last two months. In view of the scanner issue, Basil asked for an update on the letter to the Competition Commission. Mike said that he will follow up with Johannesburg and that there is Best Practice document is available on the FIATA website that is worth looking at. Clifford said that he has approached the Red Tape Unit of the Western Cape government through the Port Liaison Forum with regards to scanner issues and renewal of Customs licences. They have approached Customs and David Davids, at Transnet, and are waiting on responses to take the scanner issue further. They will also be approaching SASOA. Re-licencing has been identified as a big red tape issue, they have approached Rita

3 ~ 3 ~ Groenewald in Pretoria directly and copied in Penny Bologo. The renewal is a problem because it is an existing licence that should not have to go to Alberton. Basil said that the licencing is standing matter at the forum. The target is the first quarter of next year. Basil asked that this item be brought up in the SARS-SAAFF Executive Management meeting tomorrow ( ) as an escalation that will involve National. The following items were read by Basil from the action plan put forward by SARS which will require feedback at the Operations Forum on Friday ( ): 1. Engage SARS business systems to reconfigure the work flow A task team was established by Customs Centre of Excellence to cover PPs and embargo workflow, the gap system requirements and amendments to policies. SAAFF suggested that there should be a special queue in the process flow of the system. There will be an answer after Friday s Operations Forum meeting hour turnaround on inspections and 90-day tariff determination The item was taken up by Ashika Pillay and she will provide feedback at the Operations Forum meeting on Friday. The service charter states that there must be an EDI response within 2 hours of submission. It does not identify what happens if there is a stop or query, causing a delay within the 48 hours. 3. Virtual State Warehouse There has been a sale in Johannesburg and Durban, but Cape Town still needs to be announced. SAAFF asked that they look at the cost of the virtual State warehouse versus the actual State warehouse rent. The group executive will provide an answer on Friday to say how they have approached this with the shipping lines. 4. SADC certificates The International desk is being engaged regarding SADC certificates in terms of the approved exporters protocol. Like the importer process, the exporter will have to approach SARS and the entire process takes 3 years. 5. Representation at all other branches SAAFF has been asked to be present at all stakeholder meetings. All other regions are covered, except for the Northern Cape at this point. 6. Licencing of depots This issue was also taken up by Durban. SARS noted that the number of requests for embargos is impacted by depots not having suitable unpack facilities and the request for equipment to prepare the consignments for Customs inspections. 7. RCG Workshop Trade requested an RCG workshop in Cape Town to address issues experienced. Basil has spoken to Malcolm, Anette and Nicolas. This will be addressed in the SARS- SAAFF Executive Management meeting ( ). Nicholas also suggested that it should be escalated on Friday. Johannes discussed this issue with Anette who suggested he approach it from an industry point of view. A mailer was sent out calling for responses to issues with manual RCG manifest registration and EDI submissions, no responses were received. Basil said that National has taken it up. The list that was drawn up from the entire region and it was send to Pretoria. The working group states that it needs to be facilitated in Cape Town.

4 ~ 4 ~ Llewellyn said that it is also a system support issue. They have to report on advanced loading and advanced arrival, but here are different messages coming back from the respective systems that may mean the same thing. The service providers need to run workshops based on their systems to clear up confusion. Another issue is that companies have not registered for RCG, if they do not comply, the cargo cannot be released. 8. Customs effectiveness Patricia Jones will report back on Friday regarding the consistent applications on the penalty guidelines, VAT penalties and interest corrections. 9. Recruitment The appointment of the Cape Town office head has been finalised, but not yet named. Basil said he will add the escalations from the last meeting to the agenda for Friday s meeting: ADR process and linking enforcement agencies - SARS, TIU, CBCU, SAPS. 5.2 Maritime Action Mike said the department will make an announcement at the NPC meeting, taking place tomorrow ( ). They are trying to negotiate a better situation. Basil said he did speak to Selma who said the Minister of transport was supposed to put out communiqué regarding this. Maersk announced that from 2019 they will start implementing a cell phone surcharge, which is still under discussion. 5.3 Airfreight Matters Action 5.4 Perishables Action 6. Training Action TETA: The TETA Discretionary Grant (DG) window for application is about to be opened (early October) and members will expect to understand what TETA funding they have won early in There was recently a white paper issued by the Department of Higher Education (DHET) on the potential consolidation of the SETA s to only 15 x SETA s. This consolidation would not directly affect the TETA except that indirectly it is expected that the shared services across the SETA s will be consolidated. SAAFF on behalf of its members responded with suggestions to this paper. B-BBEE: The Youth Employment Service (YES) initiative was launched by Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year in March It was initially documented to form part of the Amended B-BBEE Generic Codes It was de-linked from the codes and became an Act on the 28th August 2018 and is effective immediately. This means that companies that reach their respective targets within this legislation have the opportunity to climb B-BBEE Contributor Status Levels.

5 ~ 5 ~ SAAFF: SAAFF continues to represent the industry in consolidating the DG grants for their members. It is possible for SAAFF members to apply directly to the TETA, however the applications need to have a significant impact if they are to be considered. 7. Domestic Matters 7.1 Annual Members Luncheon Action After some thorough research, it was agreed that the cost of hosting the end of year members lunch in the current economic environment would be too high, at R523 per person to cover expenses. The suggestion was that there can be more focus on the golf day and the annual members meeting in SAAFF National Action 9. General Action In view of membership being taken off the agenda, National has requested that SAAFF WC conduct a visit for a potential new member in Durbanville. Basil will ask Johnathan to conduct the visit when he returns. Basil thanked everyone and closed the meeting at 13:20. B Hanival