The amendment of tariff determinations

The classification of any goods under any tariff subheading in Part 1 of Schedule No. 1 to the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 is subject to the Explanatory Notes to the Harmonised System. The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service may in writing determine the tariff subheadings for goods. Any determination made by the Commissioner is only applicable to the goods mentioned therein and the person in whose name it is issued. The Commissioner also has the right to amend or withdraw any determination and make a new determination. In most instances the previous determination shall cease to be in force from the date of the amendment or of the withdrawal thereof. Since the determinations made by the Commissioner apply only to the person in whose name they are issued, these determinations are not made available for public scrutiny. Although these determinations only apply to the person in whose name they are issued, it is common practice for the Commissioner’s office and district offices to use these determinations as guidelines in the classification of similar or identical goods imported by other persons. What would happen though if the Commissioner’s office, for whatever reason, changed their viewpoint on the classification of a particular commodity? All determinations issued on new applications for a tariff determination would reflect the “amended” tariff subheading. However, if the clearing and forwarding industry is not made aware of the “amended” viewpoint of the Commissioner’s office, they would naturally continue clearing the goods under the tariff subheading which was previously considered to be correct by the Commissioner’s office. This would especially be the case in instances where clearing and forwarding agents are aware of tariff determinations issued to certain clients for a particular class of goods and base clearances for other clients, importing identical goods, on these determinations. We are aware of cases where the district offices are not even aware that certain determinations have been amended. This gives rise to the question of liability, if any, by any person clearing goods under a tariff subheading that was previously considered to be correct but has subsequently been “amended” by the Commissioner’s office in a non transparent manner. We invite any parties who find themselves in this situation to contact Customs @ Wylie for further advice and assistance in this regard.