30/11/2020

To our Valued Customers,

 

We have received notification from Freight and Trade Alliance (FTA) regarding a meeting held with Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment relating to “IAN 201-2020, that advised emergency measures in response to the Khapra Beetle, may impact the departments capacity to meet published service standards”.

 

FTA raised the following issues:

 

Inspections:

Import volumes are increasing, congestion and schedule changes in Sydney have flowed onto Melbourne creating an increase to volumes there. The department is trying to manage a 70% increase in inspections per week. Full vessels are expected until at least mid February 2021/Chinese New Year. “FTA stressed that it was not acceptable for the next available inspection date to be 10+ business days. The industry costs incurred are difficult to carry.

 

Document Processing:

The Departments previous advice was to lodge documents early. However, FTA received notifications from members stating that even though documents were uploaded 7+ days before arrival, they did not receive a direction until the vessel arrival date or after.

 

Treatment Results:

Consignments receiving post onshore treatment are being delayed 2+ days. This is compounded if the treatment is completed on or near a weekend.

 

Discretionary Compensation:

There is a scheme offered by the Department for claims to be made against it if actions caused financial harm to the importer. “Members have reported submitting claims and not receiving any correspondence for over 6 months.”

 

Next Steps:

In response to the FTA “advocacy, the Department agreed to:

 

• Review the current process for signing off treatment results
• Review the profiling and quantum of CCV inspections
• Provide transparency on current service standards”

 

From their discussions, the Department has acknowledged that they have insufficient resources to meet the current increase in demand. Therefore, service delivery delays will keep declining.

 

Should you have any queries or concerns, please feel free to contact our Customs Team.

 

Keeping you updated,

BRi Customs Team

 

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