On 18 February 2022, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced its proposed draft tariff amendments in Parts 1 ‘Ordinary Customs Duty’, 2B ‘Ad Valorem Excise Duties on locally manufactured goods or on imported goods of the same class or kind’, and 3E ‘Environmental Levy on Tyres’ of Schedule No.1 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964, Schedule No 3 ‘Industrial Rebates of Customs Duties’, 5 ‘Specific Drawbacks and Refunds of Customs Duties, Fuel Levy and Environmental Levy’, and 6 ‘Refunds and Rebates of Excise Duties, Fuel Levy and Environmental Levy’ to the Act, 1964 on which comment is due by 04 March 2022.
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) has requested that separate tariff subheadings for Phenyl Chloride, Triisopropyl Phosphite and O,O-Diethyl Phosphorothioate be created for purposes of imposing prohibitions and restriction measures on the importation of these products.
The following subheadings are inserted:
2903.69.10 Phenyl chloride
2903.69.90 Other
2920.19.10 O,O-Diethyl phosphorodithioate
2920.19.90 Other
2920.29.10 Triisopropyl phosphite
2920.29.90 Other
The following subheadings are substituted:
2903.69 Other:
2920.19 Other:
2920.29 Other:
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
The dtic Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Desk requested that a separate 8-digit tariff subheading for cannabis and products containing cannabis be created.
The basis for the request centres on the current development of the framework being developed to commercialise cannabis and its products. As part of the strategy to develop and sustain the pharmaceutical industry, detailed market information is required to identify opportunities as well as threats for this sector. The ability to access detailed information about the procurement and import of products will provide insight into development appropriate strategies to increase the domestic market capacity to enable greater procurement of locally manufactured products. The separate tariff subheading will enable the department to collect trade data, monitor levels of capacity locally, and ascertain if any other opportunities on other product categories exist.
The following subheading is inserted:
3004.90.97 Medicaments for retail sale, containing cannabis or cannabinoids
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
Standerton Mills has requested the creation of separate tariff subheadings for fabric dipped with Resorcinol Formaldehyde Latex (RFL). They motivated that these fabrics are currently imported under a residual category of goods. The creation of the separate tariff subheadings will enable them to collect trade statistics.
The following subheadings are inserted:
5407.69.10 Of a mass exceeding 200 g/m² and dipped with Resorcinol Formaldehyde Latex (RFL)
5407.69.90 Other
5512.19.10 Of a mass exceeding 200 g/m² and dipped with Resorcinol Formaldehyde Latex (RFL)
5512.19.90 Other
The following subheading is substituted:
5407.69 Other:
5512.19 Other:
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
Request from Delange Consultants on behalf of Power Line Association of South Africa (POLASA) for the expansion of the provisions for powerlines and substation hardware. POLASA requested the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to create separate tariff subheadings in an effort to expand on the provisions catering for powerlines and substations hardware, classifiable in tariff headings 73.08 and 76.10. POLASA motivated that they need to ascertain the extent of the volumes of the products imported in order to determine the import price. This will enable them to determine if the local industry is competing on equal footing with the international market.
The following subheadings are inserted:
7308.90.50 Other, towers or pylons for electric power lines
7610.90.10 For electric power lines (including transmission towers or pylons) and power stations
7610.90.90 Other
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
Ginnamar, on behalf of Scaw Metals, has requested the creation of 8-digit tariff subheadings for nyloc nuts, classifiable in tariff subheading 7318.16.20. They motivated that, as a result of the imposition of the safeguard duties on hexagon nuts, classifiable in tariff subheading 7318.16.30, there has been a flood of imports on hexagon nuts classifiable in tariff subheading 7318.16.20.
Tariff subheading 7318.16.20 provides for Hexagon dome nuts, hexagon nuts with non-metallic inserts, hexagon collared nuts and hexagon self-locking nuts. Ginnamar requested the creation of a separate tariff subheading for nyloc nuts.
The subheadings are inserted:
7318.16.21 Hexagon nuts with nylon-collar inserts
7318.16.23 Hexagon nuts without nylon-collar inserts
7318.16.29 Other
The following subheading is deleted:
7318.16.20 Hexagon dome nuts, hexagon nuts with non-metallic inserts, hexagon collared nuts, and hexagon self-locking nuts
Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
Omissions and errors found in HS 2022 publication
The sixth version of the Harmonised System (HS 2022) was published with effect from 01 January 2022. Minor errors were picked up and an opportunity has been taken to fix them.
Amendment of Part 2B of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
With HS2017, tariff subheading 8415.10 in Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 was amended to read “Of a kind designed to be fixed to a window, wall, ceiling or floor, self-contained or "split-system". A consequential amendment in Part 2B of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964 to align the description was erroneously omitted. An opportunity is used to amend the description in order to align it with the description of Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964.
Substitution of the descriptions of Items 124.05/8415.10, 04.51/8704.51.50, 126.04.55/8704.51.75 and 126.04.61/8704.51.83.
Amendment of Part 3E of Schedule No.1 to the Act, 1964
Consequential amendments to the HS 2022 were also published with effect from 01 January 2022. Minor errors were picked up and an opportunity has been taken to fix them. Some of these errors have no effect on the structure, however, some do and are discussed below. Environmental Levy Item 153.01.09 was supposed to be deleted as a result of an introduction of new provisions for tractors. This Item was erroneously left out of the deletion and is now being deleted.
The deletion of Environmental Levy Item 153.01.09/8701.30:
153.01.09 Track-laying tractors
Amendment of Schedule No.3 to the Act, 1964
As a consequence of the amendment in Part 1 of Schedule No.1 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964, with the creation of new 8-digit tariff subheadings for fabrics dipped with RFL, Schedule No. 3 has been amended.
The insertion and deletion of Rebate Items 320.04/5512.19.90/010.08 and 320.04/5512.19/01.06, respectively Schedule No.5 to the Act, 1964 -Substitution of Note 12, and Schedule No.6 to Act, 1964 - Substitution of Notes.
Amendment of Schedule No.5 to the Act, 1964
An internal request was received to amend Note 13 in Schedule No.5 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964. The reference to “refund of the customs duty specified in refund item 533.00” is deleted. The said Refund Item was deleted and thus the reference to it has become irrelevant.
Amendment of Schedule No.6 to the Act, 1964
The excise division requested an amendment to the wording “under customs supervision” wherever it appears in Schedule No.6 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964. Supervision may be conducted in both customs and excise environments by officers whenever there are processes to be performed at the clients’ premises. The current wording limits these supervisions to being conducted in a customs environment only. The expression is thus amended to read “under the supervision of an officer”.