Do you know what the values of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) are? According to the organisation’s strategic plan for the period 2016/17 to 2020/21, released on September 5, Sars has seven values: fairness, accountability, integrity, respect, transparency, trust and honesty.

On the day it released the strategic plan, Sars also released its 108-page annual performance plan for 2016/17.

For the uninitiated, Sars’ mandate is to collect all revenues due, ensure optimal compliance with tax, customs and excise legislation, and provide a customs and excise service that will facilitate legitimate trade and protect our economy and society. Its vision is to administer tax, customs and excise duties in a manner that encourages fiscal citizenship and increased revenue for the State, while its mission is to optimise revenue yield, facilitate trade and enlist new tax contributors by promoting awareness of the obligation to comply with South Africa’s tax and customs laws, and to provide a high-quality and responsive service to the public. It is interesting that Sars distinguishes between tax, customs and excise, even though customs is, by definition, a tax, as is excise.

Focusing on customs and excise, the strategic plan, in Chapter 6, deals with Sars’ ‘five-year priority initiatives’, of which there are five outcomes. The first outcome is ‘increased customs and excise compliance’. Then the annual performance plan, in Chapter 5, deals with ‘2016/17 annual performance plan initiatives and activities’, which also have five outcomes. Outcome number one is also ‘increased customs and excise compliance’.

Although these plans might not be the most favourite of reading matter, there are, nonetheless, a few things that you should take note of and commit to memory. The annual performance plan for 2016/17 contains a number of commitments, with clear deadlines.

Under the heading ‘Improve control over the flow of all goods and travellers entering and leaving the country’, Sars states that it will, by September 2016, deploy the new manifest processing system to replace the manifest acquittal system in line with new international cargo reporting and cargo management standards. It will also conclude the implementation of the new State warehouse barcode inventory management system across State warehouses and acquire additional warehouse capacity for Cape Town and Durban at suitable, cost-effective locations by February 2017. Further, it will design an off-site tracking and management system by December 2016 to reduce the risk associated with goods that are left with shipping companies for lengthy periods.

Under the heading ‘Identify, assess and respond to risks more effectively’, Sars commits to reviewing the current case selection capability and automated risk engine in order to improve risk management in the customs realm to the next level of excellence. In this regard, a recommendations report will be tabled by the end of February 2017. Sars will also start Level 2 of the Preferred Trader Compliance Accreditation Programme, which entails the awarding of status and benefits by November 1, 2016, with the intention to have accredited 100 traders by the end of March 2017.

Under the heading ‘Enhance the quality of inspections and audits to effectively address detected noncompliance’, Sars says it will review the quality framework for inspections, including physical and document inspections, and table a recommendations report by the end of October 2016. It will also implement a new enforcement workflow module by January 2017 that will enhance the traceability of manually triggered risk interventions initiated by customs officials at the various ports of entry.

Under the heading ‘Modernise and align excise processes and systems’, Sars commits to improving the excise skills of officers by developing improved standard operating procedures and introducing training interventions for the excise community by the end of November 2016. It also aims to conclude the study that considers the introduction of a track-and-trace system with the cigarette industry and replace the old diamond stamp, in line with the World Health Organisation Convention for Tobacco Control, by the end of September 2016.

Under the heading ‘Develop a professional and disciplined customs and excise workforce’, Sars states that it will, over the next 18 months, improve the professionalism and discipline of the customs and excise workforce in a focused manner by aligning Sars with the World Customs Organisation’s (WCO’s) framework of principles and practices of customs professionalism. It will also undertake an assessment of current customs and excise officers to determine skills gaps – this exercise will inform the required training interventions by the end of October 2016. Further, it will implement the National Customs and Excise Training and Mentorship Programme, with a special focus on technical and practical customs and excise skills for core roles, such as tariff classification, valuation and rules of origin, to address critical skills and capacity gaps, by the end of March 2017. The service also aims to introduce, by the end of December 2016, a pilot rotation approach for frontline officers in support of its anticorruption efforts.

Under the heading ‘Implement the new customs and excise legal framework’, Sars says it will continue the development of processes and systems to support the implementation of the Customs Control Act of 2014 and the Customs Duty Act of 2014. It will also develop and implement the processes and systems incrementally and with the cooperation and participation of the business community. The Acts will come into effect once the processes and systems are stable to ensure that there is minimal impact on the flow of trade and the economy. By the end of March 2017, Sars will implement Phase 1 of the programme, which comprises registration, licensing and accreditation.

Under the heading ‘Continue to adopt a whole-of-government approach to improving border management’, Sars says it will, by 30 June 2016, initiate the ‘single window’ concept with all relevant government departments and other stakeholders, in line with WCO standards. It will also continue to fight the trade in, and abuse of, illegal substances by supporting the National Drug Master Plan. Sars will develop and approve a departmental drug plan by the end of September 2016.

Under the heading ‘Improve service and trade administration based on an understanding of our clients and their needs’, Sars commits to re-establishing the Customs and Excise Stakeholder Forum by end of August 2016.

Outcome 1 of Sars’ five-year priority initiatives strategic plan for 2016/17 to 2020/21 is titled ‘Increased customs and excise compliance’ and highlights the risk that Sars need to manage, namely commercial fraud on imports, implementation of the Customs Control Act, the Customs Duty Act and the New Excise Act, as well as excise duty risk.

Sars lists the ‘strategic outcomes’ as increased customs and excise compliance, increased tax compliance, increased ease and fairness of doing business with Sars, increased cost effectiveness, improved internal efficiencies and increased public trust and credibility. It identifies the service’s focus as to build world-class customs and excise capabilities and performance, to collect all taxes due and increase compliance, to become a service-centric organisation and to build a high-performance culture and operation – with the enablers being a revised operating model, an improved data analytics capability and an improve information communications technology capability. Another strategic outcome is to building an organisational culture of trust and credibility, with the enables of this outcome being engagement with key stakeholders, a compliance survey and enhanced governance.

According to its strategic plan, in the context of Outcome 1, ‘Increased customs and excise compliance’, the revenue service states that its focus is on building world-class customs and excise capabilities and performance; improving control over the flow of all goods and travellers entering and leaving the country; identifying, assessing and responding to risk more effectively; enhancing the quality of inspections and audits to effectively address detected noncompliance; modernising and aligning excise processes and systems; segmenting the customs and excise base to support compliance and improve service and trade administration; develop a professional and disciplined customs and excise workforce; continuing to adopt a whole-of-government approach to improving border management; implementing the new customs and excise legal framework; and rewriting the current excise tax legislation from 2017/18.

As for the introduction of the Customs Control Act of 2014 and the Customs Duty Act of 2014, according to Sars, the development of processes and systems to support the implementation of these pieces of legislation is under way, and the subordinate legislation supporting the Acts will be finalised during 2016. The processes and systems will be built and tested incrementally. The phases envisaged for deployment are Phase 1, which entails registration, licensing and accreditation and will be ready for implementation by the end of March 2017; Phase 2, which entails the reporting of conveyances and goods and is scheduled for the end of December 2018; and Phase 3, which entails declaration processing and will be ready for implementation by March 2018.

At the time of writing – September 14 – it had been 797 days since the Customs Duty Act of 2014 was published and 784 days since the Customs Control Act of 2014 was published and 4 294 days since the two Acts’ drafting started.