Licence to distil spirits
The South African Revenue
Service (Sars) on 18 August
announced the proposed
insertion of form DA 104 –
‘Application to own, possess
or keep a still’, and form
DA 105 – ‘Application by an
Agricultural Distiller for a
licence to distil spirits’, in
terms of the Customs and
Excise Act No 91 of 1964 on
which comment is due by
1 September.
The reasoning for the
notification is that at
present only the Afrikaans
versions of the forms exist.
Form DA 105 states that ‘A
licence issued in terms of
the Customs and Excise Act,
No 91 of 1964 to a person
as an agricultural distiller
is not transferable and
expires upon the death of the
licence-holder. It should be
noted that: (a) The licence is
non-transferable, not even
to any family member of the
licensed holder, and (b) A
licence shall not be issued
to any person who was not
licensed as an agricultural
distiller during the previous
calendar year.’
WTO fights illegal
wildlife trade
On 12 August the World
Customs Organisation (WCO)
joined the international
community in celebrating
World Elephant Day under
the theme “Bringing the
world together to help save
the elephants”. It provides an
opportunity to underline the
WCO’s continued support
to its members in the fight
against illegal wildlife
trade and ivory smuggling
in particular, which has
become a daily occurrence
that requires effective
coordination among customs
administrations and other
border agencies, according to
the WCO.
The recent seizure by
Customs in Hong Kong of a
consignment of 7.2 tons of
ivory is of great concern to the
customs community and the
WCO is closely monitoring
the situation concerning
illegal wildlife trade across
jurisdictions, a WCO
spokesman says.
The WCO, as a signatory
of the United for Wildlife
Transportation Taskforce
(UFW) Buckingham Palace
Declaration, also continues
to work closely with the
UFW partners to identify
possible weaknesses in the
air-transport industry with
regard to wildlife smuggling,
and identify means by which
the sector can break these
trade chains.
Ghana Trade Fair
The Department of Trade and
Industry (the dti) has invited
exporters to participate in the
Ghana International Trade
Fair 2018, scheduled to take
place from 21 February to
11 March 2018 in Tamale,
Ghana.
The deadline date for
submissions is 21 September.
Anti-counterfeiting and
piracy sting
The World Customs
Organisation (WCO), in
cooperation with the WCO
Regional Intelligence Liaison
Office (RILO) for the Asia/
Pacific region, has successfully
concluded an enforcement
operation aimed at combating
counterfeiting and piracy in
the region.
The 19-day operation
resulted in the interception
of a large quantity of illicit
products
The largest number
of cases (40) involved
foodstuffs, making it the
most frequently intercepted
counterfeit product, followed
by pharmaceutical products
(38) and spare parts (22),
all of which could have
devastating health and safety
consequences for the region’s
citizens.
