DUTY CALLS

Mercosur Amendment
On 04 November the South
African Revenue Service
(Sars) announced the
correction of two Government
Gazette notices of 21 October
2016 to substitute the rates
of customs duty where they
appear in the “Mercosur”
column.
SADC EPA vs TDCA
Following notification of the
SADC EPA, the question
arises whether the rates of
customs duty preferences
under the SADC EPA are in
all instances preferential to
those under the TDCA that
it replaced. If you are aware
of any instances where it is
not so, please let us know
by email. We will treat the
information in confidence as
we are only interested in the
tariff subheading affected.
Sars Compliance
Commitments
Sars on 05 September
released its xviii “Increased
Customs and Excise
Compliance Commitments”
with those of November
2016 under the headline
“Identify, assess and respond
to risks more effectively”.
Sars will: (v) Commence level
2 of the Preferred Trader
Compliance Accreditation
Programme which
comprises the awarding of
“Status and Benefits” by 01
November 2016; and under
the headline “Modernise
and align Excise processes
and systems” Sars will: (ix)
Improve excise skills amongst
officers by developing
improved standard operating
procedures and introduce
training interventions to the
excise community by the end
of November 2016.
Diesel Vehicle Tariff
On 04 November the
International Trade
Administration Commission
of South Africa (Itac)
announced an amendment
to the wording for tariff
subheading 8704.21.75
published in the Government
Gazette of 23 October
2015 for a reduction in the
“general” rate of customs duty
on diesel goods vehicles of a
mass not exceeding 1 100kg
and petrol and electric goods
vehicles with a capacity of a
mass not exceeding 800kg.
Comment is due by 18
November 2016.
Flat-rolled steel
safeguard
Itac on 04 November
announced a preliminary
determination of investigation
– initiated on 29 July 2016
– for remedial action in the
form of a safeguard against
increased imports of flatrolled
products of iron or nonalloy
steel, or other alloy steel
but excluding stainless steel,
of all widths, cold-rolled (coldreduced),
not clad, plated
or coated and not further
worked than cold-rolled (coldreduced),
on which comment
is due by 22 November 2016.
DA Forms on Wine
Excise
On 31 October Sars
published, for comment –
which is due on 14 November
2016 – three DA (Doeane
en Aksyns – translated as
“Customs and Excise”) forms
relating to excise duty on
wine. The forms are DA 260 –
Wine (SOS); DA 260 – Wine
(SVM); and DA 260 – Wine
(OS).
South Africa as a
contracting party to
the Convention on the
Harmonised Commodity
Description and Coding
System (HS) nomenclature,
implements the amendments
in terms of section 48(1)(c)
“Amendment of Schedule 1” of
the Customs and Excise Act,
1964.
As a consequence, due to
amendments to Schedule
1 Part 2A, “Specific
Excise Duties on locally
manufactured or on imported
goods of the same class or
kind” of the Act, 1964 the DA
260 excise accounts for wine
require amendments to tariff
items and subheadings.