Plastic Bag Tariff – Comment due On 11 August 2014 the South African Revenue Service (Sars) published draft notices proposing amendments to plastic bags in Part 1 (Ordinary customs duty) and Part 3A (Environmental Levy) of Schedule No 1 of the Customs and Excise Act. These drafts propose the amendment of the scope of plastic carrier bags and plastic flat bags which are subject to the environmental levy by including those bags made from any thermoplastics material and to remove the current printing requirements. The draft tariff amendments for Part 1 of the Act propose to (i) delete tariff subheadings 3923.21.05, 3923.21.15, 3923.29.05 and 3923.29.15; and (ii) insert tariff subheadings 3923.21.07, 3923.21.17, 3923.29.40 and 3929.29.50. The draft tariff amendments for Part 3A of the Act propose to (i) delete item numbers 147.01.01, 147.01.03, 147.01.05 and 147.01.07; and (ii) insert item numbers 147.01.01, 147.01.03, 147.01.05 and 147.01.07. These tariff amendments are proposed as a consequence of the amendment of plastic carrier bags and plastic flat bags (VC-8087 of 2013) published by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) in Government Gazette No. 35707 of 28 September 2012, with the effective date of 06 March 2014. Comment is due by 25 August 2014. Customs Control Bill’s Rules Recap On 17 June 2014 Sars published “the first batch” of draft rules of the Customs Control Act, namely Chapter 1: Interpretation, Application and Administration of this Act; Chapter 2: Customs Control, Places of Entry and Exit and Customs Controlled Areas (to be inserted later); Chapter 3: Reporting requirements for Inbound and Outbound vessels, aircraft, trains, buses, trucks, persons and cargo; Chapter 4: General principles governing clearances and release of goods and Customs procedures; Chapter 5: General principles governing transport, sealing and loading of goods; Chapter 7: Standard processes and requirements for clearance and release of goods; Chapter 8: Home use of Goods; Chapter 9: National and International Transit; and Chapter 10: Excise warehouse transit procedure. On 04 August 2014 Sars published “the second batch” of draft rules of the Act, namely: Chapter 11: Transhipment Procedure; Chapter 12: Temporary Admission Procedure; Chapter 13: Warehousing Procedure; Chapter 14: Tax Free Shop Procedure; Chapter 15: Stores Procedure; Chapter 16: Export Procedure; Chapter 17: Temporary Export Procedure; Chapter 18: Inward Processing Procedure; Chapter 19: Home Use Processing Procedure; Chapter 20: Outward Processing Procedure; and Chapter 24: Expedited Clearance and Release of Goods. This accounts for 19 of the 41 Chapters or 46.34%. Duty Calls’ Watch List Comment on “the second batch” of draft rules of the Customs Control Act are due by no later than 26 September 2014. Customs and Excise Course From 01 to 03 October 2014 the University of Pretoria is presenting a Certificate Course in Customs and Excise Taxes, offering an opportunity for individuals with prior formal education or experience in taxation to acquire a basic knowledge of customs and excise taxes in a South African context.
