BURS in reality check
Oarabile Mosikare | Tuesday July 28, 2015 16:14
In a letter dated July 24, 2015 to all general managers and customs manage, the Commissioner of Customs and Excise Phodiso Valashia owns up to the fact that they were expecting delays at all of Botswana’s ports of entry as a result of the ongoing industrial action by some Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) members. “Please note that this is a lawful industrial action and therefore, BURS is constrained from complementing the number of employees at entry points, at least until the lapse of 14 days from the commencement of the industrial action,” said Valashia. Valishia stated that as part of the strategy of ensuring that there are minimum inconveniences to members of the public and cross-border traders, the tenancy of the industrial action, “all registered customs clearing agents are hereby authorised to request and be granted free undertaking services on customs declarations that they, the customs clearing agents, may deem to be urgent”. In addition, Valishia said officers in charge are permitted to exercise their discretion to grant such service, even where a customs clearing agent may not have requested such and the clearing agent concerned is willing to accept the use of the service. “This customs release service takes effect from 24th July 2015 to 7th August 2015 or until such time that you are adviced to discontinue the service. Kindly ensure that officers in charge keep proper records of every free undertaking service with the view to ensuring that proper customs clearance is done at the end of the period cited above.” He requested all officers in charge to implement this decision. But he explained that this customs release does not affect passenger declarations or formalities. “This should be undertaken with the view to ensuring there are minimum delays and should, therefore, be focused on formalities that pose the most risk to Botswana’s fiscus, health and security considerations.”