- The South African Revenue Service wants all travellers to use a new online system to declare goods and pay tax from 1 November.
- And with the launch date around the corner, nobody knows exactly how this new travel pass will work and how it will impact passengers.
- The revenue service was due to provide details on Tuesday but snuffed a briefing, citing insufficient alignment within government.
- And the tourism sector, which says it wasn't consulted, can't provide any clarity either.
A new online travel declaration form is due to be introduced by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport on 1 November. But nobody, including government, knows how it will work.
The country's embattled tourism sector is gun-shy, explains the CEO of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa), David Frost during Tuesday's briefing to media and stakeholders on SARS' recent announcement of the South African traveller management system. It also comes at a time when tourism is banking on a busy summer season following two years ruined by pandemic-induced restrictions.
And while the pandemic crushed South Africa's tourism industry, failing government-led initiatives, like the e-visa programme and airports' biometric systems, have made travel-focused businesses jittery when confronted with new systems imposed by the state. SARS' traveller management system – or travel pass – is one such project sending shivers through the sector.
"South Africa will be introducing an online traveller declaration system to simplify passenger movement at South African airports," SARS said in a notice on 12 October.
"The new system requires all travellers, including South African citizens and residents, children and infants, leaving or entering South Africa by air to complete and submit an online traveller declaration, as well as receive a traveller pass before they travel."
By SARS' own description, this new travel pass, to be launched at OR Tambo on 1 November, will have far-reaching consequences for passengers moving into and out of South Africa.
But the practical details on how this pass will work and what the exact implications on travellers will be is not yet known. That travel associations, like SATSA, say they weren't consulted muddies the waters even more. The decision to launch this untested system at the start of South Africa's summer holiday season has also been heavily criticised.
SARS had, according to Frost, contacted SATSA on 27 September, announcing its plans to introduce a new system that would allow travellers to "pre-declare goods purchased, received, or otherwise acquired, and to pay any applicable duties and taxes through the online web-based platform." Noting SATSA's important role in the sector, SARS requested "an engagement" to discuss the project and its impact on tourism.
"So, we were in the process of pulling a smaller group together to have, what we thought would be, a consultation where we could give input and comment on this [and] we could have a briefing by SARS and we were looking forward to that," said Frost during Tuesday's webinar, which was supposed to be attended by a SARS representative, but, in the end, wasn't.
"We were totally blindsided when the announcement went out at the end of last week and was reported widely in the press. So, I then went immediately back to SARS and said, look, this has gone out, there's a lot of consternation [and] there are a lot of questions, and without due information, it is rather unnerving to people, and there's a lot of stuff that needs to be dealt with and answered."
SATSA and SARS agreed to host a briefing on Tuesday to deal with these concerns. But a day before the event, SARS backed out, citing, according to Frost, "insufficient alignment within government on this project."
"Obviously, it's massively underwhelming," says Frost on SARS' unwillingness to engage industry on this new system just two weeks before it's due to be implemented.
"They [SARS] realise, and I'm just going to put it in the vernacular, that they've stuffed up [and] they apologise profusely."
SARS' last-minute no-show has only inflamed concerns among industry stakeholders, although Frost admits that a digital traveller management system – if done right, in moving away from handwritten forms that are susceptible to corruption – "will actually improve things" and "in no way will hinder" movement.
But South Africans looking to travel abroad and foreigners planning their summer holidays through OR Tambo remain wary of the impending and unclear pass requirements. With no further details from SARS, and the deadline fast approaching, SATSA has requested that the 1 November launch date be pushed back.
"We will be writing to the SARS commissioner today [Tuesday]. We will be taking all the input and concerns that have been raised, and we will be raising those directly with them as a matter of urgency," says Frost.
"The main message we want to get through is that trying to do this on 1 November at OR Tambo is just not the way to go. We need to take the cold shower here and just chill out and take a step back and do this in a way that brings everybody onside."