Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Act No. 91 of 1964)

Customs and Excise Rules

Chapter VIII : Registration, Licensing and Accredited Clients

Rules for Section 64E of the Act

Accreditation of clients

Part 3 : Criteria for levels of accredited client status

Criteria for Level 1 accredited client status (AEO Compliance)

Purchase

64E.12

(1)	An applicant for Level 1 accredited client status must for purposes of—

(a)	section 64E(1)(b)(i) and (vi), subject to subrule (2), have a record of compliance with this Act for 3 years preceding the date of application, as evidenced by an absence of—

(i)	a contravention of sections 80 to 84 and 86 of this Act that resulted in the imposition of any administrative penalty, excluding administrative penalties for—

(aa)	unintentional errors or omissions on documents submitted to the customs authority; or

(bb)	any other non-compliance which is a minor or mere technical breach committed without the intention to mislead; or

(ii)	any suspension or cancellation of a registration or a licence, or a deferment benefit granted to the applicant in terms of this Act;

(b)	section 64E(1)(b)(ii) and (iii), have and maintain—

(i)	a computer system conforming to any conditions specified in the user agreement referred to in section 101A;

(ii)	an effective internal accounting, record keeping and operational system which is consistent with generally accepted accounting principles, and which must—

(aa)	reflect a full audit trail of all the applicant’s customs transactions and activities; and

(bb)	have verifiable procedures for backup, recovery, fallback, archiving and retrieval of business records; and

(iii)

internal controls for detecting illegal or irregular transactions and activities;

(c)	section 64E(1)(b)(iv), have sufficient knowledge of customs and excise laws and procedures to implement and maintain an effective accredited client status compliance system, as evidenced by an Accreditation Competency Assessment Certificate issued in terms of rule 64E.06;

(d)	section 64E(1)(b)(v), have sufficient financial resources, as evidenced by—

(i)	audited financial statements of the business for the past three financial years or such lesser period as the Commissioner may allow in a specific case; or

(ii)	where no such statements are available, other evidence of the financial viability of the business which may include proof of available financial resources as the Commissioner may allow; and

(e)	section 64E(1)(b)(vi), have no—

(i)	outstanding—

(aa)	taxes, interest, penalties or other amounts due and payable to SARS for which he or she is liable in terms of this Act or any other tax law; or

(bb)	tax returns or other documents that must be submitted for tax purposes to SARS in terms of this Act or any other tax law; or

(ii)	conviction for any offence in terms of this Act or any other tax law.

(2)

The Commissioner may, despite subrule (1)(a), assess an applicant’s record of compliance with customs requirements on the basis of any records and information available to the Commissioner at the time of application, if a three year compliance record referred to in subrule (1)(a) is not available due to the applicant’s limited exposure to the South African customs and excise environment.