HM Revenue and Customs has revised its plans to implement SAD Harmonisation (SAD-H) on 1st July 2007 and will instead permit dual running of both the current and new types of the Single Administrative Document.
Colin Beaumont, BIFA director general, said: “During our discussions with HMRC, we made it perfectly clear that forwarders, importers and exporters would face major disruption if HMRC went ‘big bang’ with this on 1st July instead of making some allowance for dual running at the implementation stage, which had been the original intention.”
The dual running is due to continue until 30 September 2007. He said that freight forwarders now had time to adapt to the new procedures and uncover any defects of upgraded systems and software along the way.
The harmonised SAD is an EU Commission initiative designed to make the customs process paperless under the Community Customs Code.
Peter MacSwiney, chairman of the Agency Sector Management the representative body and provider of freight software, said that the harmonised SAD (Single Administrative Document), would have led to “a disaster” as freight forwarders and their staff would have had to grapple with unfamiliar customs declarations and software.
