Clear guidelines to be issued shortly IMPORTERS COULD be in for a whopping increase in deposits for goods removed in bond by road if recent moves to include VAT in the amount lodged are successful.
According to a Safcor spokesman it is common practice for deposits to be lodged with customs where goods have to be removed in bond by road or where release is required pending compliance with other import requirements.
These payments have generally been based on duties payable on the goods, but not the VAT, although FTW understands that Customs has been fairly erratic in the application of the rule.
According to one source, at Johannesburg customs the deposit has not included VAT, while in Durban it has, and at Johannesburg International Airport it's sometimes applied and sometimes not.
The auditor-general has identified this as one of a number of inadequacies in the collection of VAT on imported goods that has been abused.
In July last year the VAT Act was amended and Customs given authority to collect duties on provisional payments. But practical problems forced a delay in implementation which was pushed forward to January 1998. This deadline has again been delayed. Commerce and industry is understandably firmly opposed to a change in the status quo.
SARS spokesman Christo Henning told FTW that the question of the application of the Customs and Excise Act/Value Added Tax Act regarding VAT on imported goods (including the aspect of deposits to cover VAT) was currently under review in consultation with the SA Association of Freight Forwarders.
Clear guidelines will be issued shortly, he said.
