Drawback Rejections In last week’s column you were informed of the release of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) letter titled “Letter of Authority In Respect of General Refund/ Drawback Applications”. During the course of last week Sars released a letter titled “General Refund/ Drawback Application Rejections” in which it notes that from its records the majority of the Internal Administrative Appeal (IAA) cases are instituted against rejected refund applications, specifically time-expired refund applications. Sars has advised that prior to an IAA, clients who are not in agreement with the reason for the rejection of the claim by the respective branch office are requested to approach the relevant team leader or group manager in order to clarify the rejection. If the client is still not satisfied with the decision of the team leader or the group manager then a formal IAA as provided for in the Internal Administrative Appeals document may be instituted by the client. Customs Duty Increase Calcium Propionate It was announced on 20 August 2010 that the “General” rate of customs duty on calcium propionate, classifiable under tariff subheading 2915.50.30 would be increased from a rate of customs duty of free to 15% ad valorem. Customs Duty Increase Pigments It was announced on 20 August 2010 that the “General” rate of customs duty on pigments and preparations based on chrome oxide green, lead chromate, zinc chromate, barium chromate or strontium chromate, inorganic pigments of the following description and International Colour Index Numbers: • C.I. Pigment, Yellow 34, No. 77603 • C.I. Pigment, Yellow 34, No. 77600 • C.I. Pigment, Red 104, No. 77605 • C.I. Pigment, Red 104 and 84:4, No. 77605 and No. 15865 • C.I. Pigment, Green 15, No. 77603 and No. 77520 • C.I. Pigment, Green 13, No. 77603 and No. 74200 • C.I. Pigment, Green 17, No. 77288 • C.I. Pigment Yellow 32, No. 77839 • C.I. Pigment, Yellow 36, No. 77955, classifiable under tariff subheading 3206.20.10, would be increased from a rate of customs duty of free to 10% ad valorem. Sunset Review Polyethylene Terephthalate Reminder of the initiation of the sunset review of the anti-dumping duties on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), classifiable under tariff subheading 3907.60, originating in or imported from India, South Korea (Korea) and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Comment is due by 30 August 2010. Sars’ Customs Modernisation Programme The second of the key modernisation initiatives is “Enforcing mandatory electronic communication with traders, customs brokers, carriers and release agents”. Since the introduction of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) a few years ago, the uptake of EDI by the trade has grown remarkably. Customs now receives in excess of 90% of clearance declarations electronically. In October 2009 and April 2010 Sars introduced the mandatory submission of clearance transactions electronically to all traders in South Africa and the BLNS countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland) respectively. Coupled with electronic receipt of declarations, Customs has also introduced electronic release messages to obviate the need for paper-based customs release notifications.
