Duty Calls

12 May 2017 - by Riaan de Lange

‘Frozen’ Customs

Control Rules

The South African

Revenue Service (Sars)

on 03 May announced

that the third draft of the

Customs Control Rules

(rules) to the Customs

Control Act 31 of 2014

(Act) had been published

for sight, and not for public

comment. According to the

notification, as previously

explained to stakeholders,

this draft has been “frozen”

for purposes of Sars’

systems development.

The amendments made to

the second draft of the rules

to the Act include changes

occasioned by external

stakeholder comments

received, internal feedback

and Sars operational

requirements, changes to

give effect to amendments

and proposed amendments

to the Act, (as contained

in the Tax Administration

Laws Amendment Act,

2016, and to be contained

in the Tax Administration

Laws Amendment Bill,

2017), 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.

This publication consists

of two documents, (i) The

first document is the official

“clean”, renumbered third

draft of the Control Rules,

or the so-called “frozen”

Control Rules. This draft

contains all amendments

but does not indicate the

changes effected to the

second draft of the rules;

and (ii) The other document

indicates changes effected

by strikethrough text

highlighted in blue (for

deletions) and underlined

text highlighted in yellow

(for insertions).

In the case of any

unintentional discrepancy

between the wording of

the document indicating

changes and the official

“clean” third draft, the

wording of the “clean” draft

prevails.

As for Chapters 2 and

37, the draft rules will

be published for public

comment at a later stage

when these chapters have

been finalised.

Tariff Amendments –

Comment due

On 05 May Sars published

draft tariff amendments on

which comment is due by 26

May. The draft amendments

relate to (i) various

technical amendments in

Part 1 of Schedule No 1 to

the Customs and Excise Act

91 of 1964 to create separate

8-digit tariff subheadings

in Chapters 2, 29, 38, 39,

73, 76 (insertion of an

additional Note 1) and 87;

(ii) Part 2A of Schedule No

1 to amend the description

of item 104.17/2206.00; (iii)

Part 3E of Schedule No 1 is

amended as a consequence

of the insertion in Part 1 of

Schedule No 1 to provide

for road wheel and rims

fitted with tyres; (iv) Part

1 of Schedule No 2 to

insert anti-dumping item

201.02/0207.14.92/01.08

as a consequence of an

insertion in Part 1 of

Schedule No 1; and (v)

Part 1C of Schedule No 6

to insert refund provisions

under 620.22 to make

provision for wine in

containers of more than 2

litres but not more than 10

litres, as a consequence of

Part 1 of Schedule No1 in

HS 2017.