Sars clamp-down on under-valuation draws industry support

The latest drive by SA Revenue Service to clamp down on the under-valuation of clothing and textile imports from the Far East has drawn unqualified support from the Textile Federation. It’s one of the biggest problems facing the country, in the view of executive director Brian Brink, who concedes that implementation is initially likely to result in delays. “We’re not privy to how the flagging will be done but delays are always an unfortunate consequence. “Initially I suspect it will affect even the squeaky clean operators, but once you have a track record, they’re likely put you in a compliance block. There are enough crooks out there to keep Sars very busy.” Sars launched its clothing and textile campaign late last year, pointing out that all targeted consignments would be examined at the first port of entry, regardless of where the clearance is processed. “Clearances processed in Gauteng for goods landed in Durban will be examined in Durban if the consignment is stopped,” said a Sars spokesman. “Stopped consignments must be placed in a Durban depot for examination by the Durban team which will facilitate the movement of all documents with the Gauteng offices.” If stopped consignments are removed before they have been examined in Durban, they will need to be returned to Durban, he said. It’s no secret that the clothing and textile industry has suffered significantly as a result of under-valued imports and the abuse of rebate and other trade schemes. The closing down of manufacturers and resultant job losses has been a major blow to the local industry and the economy. The quota on Chinese imports was introduced last year, in part to address the industry’s problems, but it was terminated at the end of last year – with many in the industry branding it a failure. Rather than stemming the flow of cheap imports, imports continued from a number of obscure destinations – China was replaced by the likes of Myanmar, for example. Despite several calls to Sars over several days, FTW was still awaiting input from the revenue authority when this issue went to press.