On 08 July 2026, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) published a letter on its website, “Addendum to Report 692 – Amendment of Rebate Item 316.01 and Rebate Item 316.09 to allow for the inclusion of additional components for cooking and cooling appliances” addressed to the Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, dated 18 March 2026, which reads:
Addendum to Report No. 692: Amendment of Rebate Item 316.01 and Rebate Item 316.09 to allow for the inclusion of additional components for cooking and cooling appliances
Introduction
1. Defy Appliances (Pty) Ltd applied for an amendment of Rebate Items 316.01 and 316.09 to allow for the inclusion of additional components for cooking and cooling appliances.
These rebate provisions allow for the importation of various components such as hinges of base metal, electric heating resistors and other parts classifiable under tariff subheadings 8302.10, 8418.91, 8418.99, 8516.80, 8516.90 and 8536.90. The components are used in the manufacture of various domestic appliances.
2. The subject products attract a customs duty ranging from 5% ad valorem to 20% ad valorem, depending on the nature of the component and country of origin, as outlined in Table 1 of ITAC Report No. 692. The current rebate structure for Rebate Items 316.01 and 316.09 is outlined in Tables 2 and 3 of ITAC Report No.692.
3. The Commission recommended that Rebate Items 316.01 and 316.09 be amended to allow for the inclusion of additional components for cooking and cooling appliances as outlined in paragraph 1 above.
4. ITAC Report No.692, containing ITAC’s recommendation, was forwarded to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (Minister) and subsequently, the Minister approved ITAC’s recommendation on 22 August 2022.
5. ITAC Report No.692 was forwarded to the Minister of Finance for consideration and implementation through SARS.
6. However, whilst processing ITAC’s recommendation for implementation, SARS established that the descriptive amendments to the rebate provisions contained in the report were no longer aligned with the descriptions that it had initially provided. This is because, due to the complex nature of the amendments that were sought, Defy had drafted an annexure with the intention of simplifying the amendments. The unintended result of the Defy annexure was that the proposed descriptions were no longer harmonised with SARS’ proposals, rendering them unimplementable.
7. In addition, SARS also sought clarity on the need to introduce a permit system for the provisions, given that these were not subject to an ITAC permit.
8. In its engagements with SARS, ITAC clarified that the intention of ITAC in recommending the introduction of a permit system was to allow the Commission to immediately stop the issuance of these permits if local manufacturing of the subject products begins. This is due to the fact that, during the course of the investigation, it was established that there is potential for the localisation of some of the components subject to these rebate provisions.
9. After several engagements between ITAC, SARS and Defy, a resolution was reached on 02 September 2025 to proceed with the implementation of the requested amendments under Schedule 3 of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 as outlined in paragraph 12 below.
Findings
10. During its meeting of 15 December 2025, ITAC considered the updated rebate descriptions following engagements between ITAC, SARS and Defy in light of the developments regarding the implementation of its recommendation contained in Report No.692.
11. ITAC found that:
- The recommendations in paragraphs 23 and 24 of ITAC Report No.692, in their current form, are not implementable;
- The updated rebate descriptions fully cover ITAC’s initial intention to provide relief to the domestic appliances manufacturing industry through these suggested amendments;
- Implementing the ITAC’s recommendation to amend Rebate Items 316.01 and 316.09 to allow the inclusion of additional components for cooking and cooling appliances, based on the updated rebate descriptions, will be done without reopening the investigation.
12. ITAC therefore decided to amend Report No.692, in terms of Section 48(a) of ITA Act, which provides that inter alia “the Commission may vary or rescind a recommendation or decision in which there is an obvious error or omission, but only to the extent of correcting that error or omission” and supported the amendment to the Schedule 3 rebate structure in order to allow for the inclusion of additional components for the manufacture of cooking and cooling appliances, as follows:
- New Rebate Item 316.01/8302.10/01.06 for: “Hinges of base metal, classifiable under tariff subheading 8302.10, for use in the manufacture of household refrigerators and freezers of heading 84.18, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New Rebate Item 315.15 for: “Hinges of base metal, classifiable under tariff subheading 8302.10, for use in the manufacture of non-electric domestic ovens classifiable in heading 73.21 in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New Rebate Item 316.01/8418.99.20/01.08 for: “Other parts, for household fridges and freezers, classifiable under tariff subheading 8418.99.20, for use in the manufacture of refrigerators and freezers of heading 84.18, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New Rebate Item 316.01/8418.99.40/01.08 for: “Evaporators and condensers, classifiable under tariff heading 8418.99.40, for use in the manufacture of refrigerators and freezers of heading 84.18, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New rebate item 315.15/8516.80/01.06 for: “Electric heating resistors, of tariff subheading 8516.80, for the manufacture of non-electric domestic ovens of tariff subheading 73.21, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New Rebate Item 316.09/8516.90/04.06 for: “Parts, classifiable in tariff subheading 8516.90, for use in the manufacture of electric domestic stoves, hobs and tabletop cookers (excluding glass top stoves and hobs), classifiable under tariff heading 85.16, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
- New Rebate item 315.15/8516.90/01.06 for: “Parts, classifiable under tariff subheading 8516.90, for use in the manufacture of non-electric domestic hobs and stoves (excluding glass top stoves and hobs), classifiable under tariff heading 73.21, in such quantities, at such times and subject to such conditions as the International Trade Administration Commission may allow by specific permit.”
13. The recommendation contained in Report No.692 is being varied through an addendum to the Report.
PROPOSAL
14. In light of the foregoing, it is recommended that the Minister amend Report No.692 to approve the amendment to Report No.692 to correct a technical error, which varies from ITAC’s initial recommendation.
Chief Commissioner
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