National Budget 2019 – Customs and Excise
This column will briefly reference the customs and excise proposals contained in the National Budget Review of 20 February which will be detailed in Customs Buzz. Under the heading “Customs and Excise”, the following subheadings appear: (i) The South African Revenue Service (Sars) publication of the excise rewrite discussion document; (ii) Reviewing the tax treatment of dutyfree shops; (iii) Excluding bulk wine movements from the compulsory tariff determination requirement; (iv) Extending the fiscal marking, tracking and tracing intervention to include excise and levy goods; (v) Progress with the review of the diesel refund administration; (vi) Sharing clientspecific information with relevant departments for carbon tax purposes; (vii) Ad valorem proposals to consistently apply and extend current items – expanding the
computer category; (viii) Ad valorem proposals to consistently apply and extend current items – expanding the gaming category; (ix) Duty rebates and refunds in circumstances of vis major ; (x) Curbing smuggling and illicit financial flows; (xi) Definition of fuel levy goods; and (xii) Environmental fiscal reform policy.
Sacu Payment Shock
Payments to the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) member states are projected to increase sharply between 2019/20 and 2020/21 – from R48.3bn in 2018 to R60.1bn in 2019 to R65.8bn in 2020 – which is due to rising imports and estimated underpayments.
Creation of Various Rebate Items
On 22 February the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) published various rebate provisions (rebate items) on:
Optical fibres, not individually sheathed, classifiable in tariff subheading 9001.10, for use in the manufacture of optical fibre cables classifiable in tariff subheading 8544.70. Petroleum jelly, in immediate packings of a content exceeding 5kg, classifiable in tariff subheading 2712.10.20, for the manufacture of optical fibre cables, classifiable in tariff subheading 8544.70. Other, monofilament of which any cross-sectional dimension exceeds 1mm, rods, sticks and profile shapes, whether or not surface-worked but not otherwise worked, of other plastics, classifiable in tariff subheading 3916.90.90, for the manufacture of optical fibre cables, classifiable in tariff subheading 8544.70. Wire of non-alloy steel, clad with aluminium, classifiable in tariff heading 72.17, for use in the further processing of optical fibre cable classifiable in tariff subheading 8544.70, by
reinforcing the optical fibre cable with one or more layers of stranded wire. Optical fibre cable, classifiable in tariff subheading 8544.70, for further processing by reinforcing the fibre optical cable with one or more layers of wire. Comment is due by 22 March.
Screws Safeguard
On 22 February Sars published a safeguard duty in terms of safeguard item 260.03/7318.15.39/01.08 of 48.01% from 03 August 2019 up to and including 02 August 2020, on other screws fully threaded with hexagon heads, and a safeguard duty of 45.61%, from 03 August 2020 up to and including 02 August 2021.
