Govt customs duties’ 'indecision' costs fiscus billions - report

Extensive delays by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, and the Minister of Finance to take final decisions in dozens of customs duty investigations have cost the fiscus at least R1.25bn in revenue. So believes Donald MacKay, CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors. He was speaking at the launch of the XA Open Cases Report which outlines how long these customs duty cases are taking to be decided by the International Trade Administration Commission. The report found that in addition to the loss to the fiscus, another R2bn has been collected in duties for goods not made locally, adding a significant cost burden to companies without protecting any domestic industry. South Africa collects around R55bn per annum in customs duties. Import duty changes which are supposed to take between four and six months to finalise are taking over two years to be completed. There are currently 46 tariff and anti-dumping investigations underway, with 58% of these overdue. MacKay proposes that all cases which have been open for more than 18 months should be given 3 months to be finalised or terminated. This is audio taken from his presentation of the report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices