Draft Customs Control
Act Rules
Sars on 21 January 2015
published the draft Customs
Control Act, 2014 rules,
2nd draft (Clean draft
re-numbered); the draft
Customs Control Act, 2014
rules, 2nd draft (track
changes-version showing
changes); and a comment
sheet, on which comment is
due by 01 April 2016.
According to Sars the
amendments made to the first
draft of the rules to the Act
include changes occasioned
by external stakeholder
comments received after
publication of the first draft,
internal feedback and Sars
operational requirements,
changes to give effect to
proposed amendments to the
Customs Control Act, 2014,
(as contained in the Taxation
Administration Laws
Amendment Bill, 2015), as
well as the technical review of
the draft as a whole. Technical
amendments include the
correction of errors, the
moving of provisions, the
adaptation of wording to
ensure consistency of similar
provisions throughout
the text, the insertion of
provisions inadvertently
omitted, the insertion of
general provisions applicable
to all the chapters and the
consequential deletion or
adaptation of provisions in the
various chapters.
VAT on Vegetable Oil
On 21 January 2015 Sars
published its draft Binding
General Ruling (BGR) on
the Value-added Tax (VAT)
treatment of the supply or
importation of vegetable oil,
on which comment is due by
22 February 2016.
Agricultural Product
Standards Act
The Department of
Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries on 22 January 2016,
in terms of the Agricultural
Product Standards Act,
published notices on (i)
sunflower seed intended
for sale in South Africa, (ii)
milk producers, (iii) export
of apples; (iv) soft wheat
intended for sale in South
Africa; (v) durum wheat
intended for sale in South
Africa; (vi) export of tree nuts;
(vii) pineapples intended for
sale in South Africa; (viii)
registration of milk producers;
and (ix) maize products
intended for sale in South
Africa.
Pharmaceutical
substances
Customs laboratory staff
from 37 World Customs
Organisation member
countries and the European
Union (EU) met earlier
this month to examine the
Harmonised System (HS)
classification of around
200 new pharmaceutical
substances with a generic
name, so-called INNs
(International Nonproprietary
Names).
The Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW) and the
World Health Organisation
(WHO) also participated in
the meeting.
They scrutinised the
possible amendments to the
nomenclature in respect of
dual use items, substances
controlled by the chemical
weapons convention and
ozone-depleting substances
controlled by the Montreal
Protocol.
The 2017 edition of the
HS will enter into force on
1 January 2017. In order
to anticipate the changes
arising from the new edition
of the HS, the SSC tackled
the reclassification of
several INNs as well as the
consequential amendments
to the HS explanatory notes
in the area of the chemical
or allied industries, which
will also be effective from 1
January 2017.
DUTY CALLS
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