On 09 November the South African Revenue Service (Sars) released its draft rule amendment to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 by the substitution of the heading of rule 75.00 ”Registration of rebate users affected by amendments of items, tariff headings or subheadings in Schedule No 3 or 4 effective from 1 January 2017”, and the rule “From 1 January 2017, a rebate user shall be regarded as being registered to receive imported goods classifiable within an amended item or tariff heading or subheading shown in the column for “Version 2017 (HS 2017)” if such rebate user is, immediately prior to that date, registered under any item of Schedule No 3 or 4 to receive imported goods classifiable within the corresponding item or tariff heading or subheading for “Version 2016 (HS 2012)” listed in the correlation table on the Sars website.” Comment is due by 23 November 2016.
According to Sars’ explanatory note, 01 January 2017 marks the implementation of the 2017 version of the Harmonised System (HS) Nomenclature - HS2017 - which South Africa will implement in terms of section 48(1)(c) of the Act, 1964. Rebate users that are currently registered with Sars in terms of the HS 2012 tariff headings and tariff subheadings. The draft rule amendment intends to avoid a re-registration process of rebate users in terms of the HS 2017.