If I had one CEL wish it would be for the demise of the ad valorem duties of Schedule No1 Part 2B to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964. For one, its conflicting naming convention should be relegated to the past, even though it is a recent amendment.
As per the schedule’s title ad valorem excise duties are imposed on “locally manufactured goods or on imported goods”. But excise duties are payable on locally manufactured goods only.
Then the schedule is a relic of the past. It still imposes duties on ‘line telephone sets with cordless handsets’, ‘cathode-ray tube monitors’, and ‘muzzle-loading firearms’ to name a few. It also contains a number of products which by no stretch of the imagination could be considered to be ‘luxury’ products, which the schedule taxes.
Arguably the only real revenue collected by means of this schedule pertains to motor vehicles.