Tax Administration
Laws Amendment Bill:
Explanatory Summary
On 13 October the South
African Revenue Service
(Sars) announced that the
finance minister intended
to shortly introduce the
Tax Administration Laws
Amendment Bill, 2017, in
the National Assembly.
With its announcement,
an explanatory summary
of the Bill was published,
identifying further
amendments to the Customs
Acts.
Customs and Excise Act,
1964, to extend a provision
related to information
sharing; to clarify a provision
related to imported fuel levy
goods; to amend a provision
related to customs controlled
areas; to clarify a provision
related to environmental
levy goods; and to amend a
provision to delete references
to the VAT Act.
Customs Duty Act, 2014,
to clarify who may claim
refunds and drawbacks
and to whom refunds and
drawbacks will be paid;
and to amend a provision
to broaden the scope for
clearance declarations
and amended clearance
declarations to be regarded
as applications for purposes
of the Act.
Customs Control Act,
2014, to make certain
technical corrections; to
delete certain unnecessary
provisions; to clarify certain
provisions, to amend a
provision by qualifying
when a permission to
depart must be submitted
in relation to foreign-going
vessels; to make changes
to provisions relating to
the submission of vessel
and aircraft departure and
arrival reports; to substitute
a provision relating to
customs permission for
the transfer of ownership
of goods under customs
procedures so as to provide
flexibility to exclude certain
procedures where permission
is not required and to more
fully provide for different
scenarios that may arise
when goods are transferred;
to effect changes to a section
to broaden the notion of
an amended clearance
declaration; to amend
sections to provide for and
clarify various scenarios
that may arise when
transhipment operations
take place at two different
seaports; to make certain
adjustments to provisions
for purposes of systems
facilitation; to provide
more clarity in respect
of reusable transport
equipment entering and
leaving South Africa and to
create flexibility to provide
for certain divergent issues
concerning the different
types of reusable transport
equipment by rule; to
simplify the removal of
stores from a foreign-going
vessel, aircraft or crossborder
train; to provide for
exclusions and exemptions;
to limit the requirement of
registration as electronic
user to the person actually
accessing the Sars electronic
system; and generally to
make adjustments for the
smoother implementation of
the Act.
Customs and Excise
Amendment Act, 2014, to
delete a paragraph.
60th WCO HS
Committee Session
The World Customs
Organisation (WCO) held its
60th Harmonised System
(HS) Committee session from
27 September to 06 October.
Since its first session, held in
April 1988, the HS committee
has examined 4 144 agenda
items and taken 2 230
decisions. During the 60th
session, the HSC took some
50 classification decisions
related to products covered
by the HS nomenclature in at
least seven different areas.
Draft Deferment Rules
Workshop
Sars has released the
presentation of its draft
deferment rules to the
Customs Duty Act, 2014, held
on 11 October 2017, following
its previous workshop held on
29 May.
