The South African Revenue Service (Sars) Modernisation Team issued this notice dated 02 December 2010 titled “Problems with Ex-Warehouse Entries Placed under Processing for Home Use Procedure & Inward Processing Procedure”. According to the notice, from 31 October 2010, Sars has terminated the use of ‘transfer of liability’ purpose codes. This means that importers not registered or otherwise eligible to import goods for a specific rebate or duty relief regime can no longer clear imported goods under ‘transfer of liability’ purpose codes. Sars has considered trade’s dilemma and submission. In order to obviate the problem the following steps have been contemplated for implementation and use by trade as a temporary/interim solution, until further notice: • Imported goods intended for rebate use may be declared at time of importation by an importer who is at the same time a rebate registrant under the CPC combination K85 00/or 20 [IR-Industrial Rebate] CPC J80 00/or 20 [GR-Inward Processing]. • If the importer is not a rebate registrant, the goods must be declared for warehousing CPC E40 00/or 20. A transfer of ownership under CPC E41 40/41/or 44 will then be permitted transferring ownership to a rebate registrant. The rebate registrant may thereafter clear the goods ex warehouse for rebate purposes under CPC K85 40/41/or 44 [XIR-Industrial Rebate], and CPC J80 40/41 or 44 [XGR-Inward Processing]. • Interim solution: • Sars will allow rebate registrants, irrespective of whether they are registered importers or not, to insert their rebate number in the importer code field (Box 8) on the SAD500. • Sars will consider rebate registrants as importer/owners and process clearance declarations accordingly. The terms and conditions of this solution are to permit the legitimate movement of goods from original importers to rebate registrants until a final solution is defined and implemented. Customs Operational staff have been notified of this arrangement and instructed to act accordingly. The use of the solution must be strictly followed as set out above, failing which this Office will intervene in the event of non-compliance. The solution can be implemented immediately by affected stakeholders.
