On 20 March, the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service released a letter to all relevant stakeholders advising of the intention to withdraw all concessions in terms of Section 3(2) of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, No 3 of 2000.
An opportunity to respond within 21 business days from the date of the letter was granted.
What are these concessions?
As contained in the letter, concessions are considered to be deviations, agreements or special allowances granted by customs and excise offices for specific purposes in instances where a process or procedure was not covered by policy or legislature.
Many of the concessions date back more than 20 years and were granted due to lengthy manual processes in place at the time. These concessions were either industry-specific, product-related, linked to a process (import- or export-specific) and in relation to specific ports of entry.
The current list, dated 27 February 2007, contains 147 concessions.
Here is an example of a concession granted at a time when everything was manual: A container is packed with fruit on a farm in the early hours of a Saturday morning and delivered to the export stack the same morning. The customs declaration could not be submitted as none of the required health certificates and permits were available. A concession was, therefore, granted to allow export documents for wine, spirits and perishable products to be produced 14 days after a vessel’s sailing. This allowed export to take place without customs clearance, taking into account that, under normal circumstances, a customs release should have been obtained prior to delivery of the container to the export stack.
Another example is a concession for goods landed for repairs, permitting the use of a landing letter instead of a bill of entry when the entry cannot be processed in time.
Concerns have been raised regarding the “blanket” removal of concessions as many of these are still used by some industries.
Customs has acknowledged receipt of submissions and has undertaken to respond directly to relevant parties. However, customs has made it clear that concessions now covered by policy or legislation are outside of the law and will be withdrawn by the end of 2025.
This is not unreasonable, considering the customs modernisation programme with all its technological advances. Declarations can be submitted 24/7 and, although still limited, some permits and certificates can be applied for and issued electronically.
Of the 147 listed concessions, most may be withdrawn now that they are included in policy but those still excluded remain a concern for directly affected parties.
There may well be instances where policy or legislation will have to be amended to incorporate a new process or procedure before withdrawing the relevant concession but trade should be prepared for concessions to be withdrawn by 31 December 2025.
