ASM WELCOMES ABOUT TURN BY HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS

Agency Sector Management, the representative body and provider of leading edge software and first class support to members of the freight community, has welcomed the decision by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to revise its plan to implement SAD Harmonisation as a 'big bang' on 1st July 2007.

The company had previously warned importers, exporters and forwarders to brace themselves for major disruption if Customs switched over to the new system on July 1st.

Peter MacSwiney, chairman of ASM said: “We have had a number of meetings with HMRC and made the point that plans to implement new regulations, based on the new harmonised SAD (Single Administrative Document), would have led to a disaster as freight forwarders and their staff would have had to grapple with completely unfamiliar customs declarations and largely untested software.

“During our lobbying of HMRC, we have encouraged them to think again. So, we are extremely pleased that our efforts have appeared to pay off as we understand that instead of moving the industry en masse to the new system on July 1st, a phased approach will be adopted. That will mean communities will be able to migrate to the new system when they are satisfied that the new software is working properly and that staff have been properly trained and familiarised with the new procedures.

"By allowing a phased transition, we believe that many difficulties will be avoided and the risk of failure greatly reduced."

The new harmonised SAD (SADH) is an EU initiative as a precursor to allowing declaration data to be passed between Member State’s computer systems. It includes numerous new data elements and codes and item-level information, all of which could involve more manpower to input the required information.

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We are a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and owned by our users. The ASM board is made up of working freight executives who perform their duties voluntarily.

Without the need to satisfy shareholders we are uniquely placed to deliver the most cost effective solutions available in today's marketplace.

- Impress Communications Ltd
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- 44(0)1689 860660, info@impresscommunications.org
- Ian Matheson

This release was published on openPR.