Customs and Excise Bill, 2019
On 14 March the South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced that the Finance Minister had tabled the Customs and Excise Bill, 2019 [B32019] in the National Assembly on 05 February. It is due to come into operation on 01 June. The intention of the bill is to amend the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 by inserting Section 54AA “ Provisions relating to carbon tax ”. The bill includes the insertion of a new provision for the purpose of the administration of allowances and limitation of allowances in relation to the Carbon Tax Act, and a provision facilitating the administering of those allowances and limitation of allowances as rebates, refunds or drawbacks. The proposed provision further requires that a taxpayer, as defined in the Carbon Tax Act, must license premises
as may be prescribed by rule. The provision also regulates actions pertaining to submission and verification of accounts, collection and payment of the carbon tax. In addition, the proposed amendment allows the Sars Commissioner to make rules insofar as it is necessary to regulate duties, powers and rights not regulated by the Carbon Tax Act in relation to the collection and payment of the carbon tax.
Reports of Part Shipped Cargo – Comment due
Sars on 12 March called for comment on the proposed amendments to Rule 8 “ Reports of cargo landed and unpacked and packed or loaded ” to the Act, 1964 which is due on 29 March. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to provide for the reporting of goods transported by road that
are part-shipped. In the instance of this Rule to the Act, 1964 the insertion of the following definition, “part-shipment”, in relation to information reflected on an advance arrival or departure notice prescribed in terms of these rules for trucks entering or leaving the Republic, indicates a part of a consignment of goods that are (a) transported through a single land border-post on more than one truck by reason of the size, weight or volume of the goods in the consignment; and (b) entered on a single bill of entry.
'New' Customs Legislation Update
The Customs Duty Act, 2014 and the Customs Control Act, 2014 were introduced nearly five years ago, 10 July 2014 and 23 July 2014 respectively. The last update was on 01 March, being an “ Update
on the new Customs Acts Programme (NCAP) – DPS ”.
Duty Calls’
Watchlist Comment on Sars’ “ Discussion Document on the Rewrite of the Excise Legislation ” is due by 31 May. Comment on the safeguard investigation on threaded fasteners of iron or steel is due by 30 April. Comment on the proposed Excise Duty Act has been extended to 29 March. Applications for quota import permits for rebate of the full anti-dumping duty on frozen chicken bone-in-cuts originating in the United States is now due.
