I tried to post this in off topic chatter, but that forum category does not seem to work.
I heard over the weekend that there are new restrictions being applied on private imports. These have not affected me yet, as far as I know, but they are very worrying. I don’t know if other countries have similar issues. It’s bad enough that imports take an average of 73 days to reach me, it’s impossible to buy Lithium cells from most sites, and I have to pay about $2 for every collection from the post office, but now they want to restrict us to 3 parcels a year!
So have any South African flashaholics run into these restrictions and had to deal with them? Please post your story and what you have found out.
Does it correspond to similar restrictions in other countries?
They word it as 3 “consignments” so they should look at one delivery of any number of enclosed items packaged together under the allowed value as a single consignment.
What good is 3 consignments under R50k a year though to us flashaholics, who tend to buy 3 relatively low value items a month if not a week? Buy 3 items from Banggood at the same time and they tend to ship each separately anyway, so there you go, limit reached in one transaction.
So what does an importer’s code imply? Is it just a formality that you go through once and when you got your code you’re good to go again?, or is this serious trouble that costs you time and money over and over again?. In the latter case: South Africa withdraws from the global market and is warped back into the Middle Ages
I don’t know the implications of this. Firstly it is getting documents together and applying, which means dealing with government bureaucracy, and possibly days off work, long queues, months of delays etc. Secondly it could mean extra complications in submitting tax returns, I am behind on that as it is so can’t provide a tax clearance certificate yet. Thirdly it could mean automatically having to pay import tax on everything. I really don’t know. I am hoping someone here who has already found out can fill in the details otherwise I am going to have to do the legwork and update the thread as a warning to others.
I currently have 2 June orders and 4 July orders on the way, so far 3 of them have cleared customs and are with the post office.
I also have already received 4 orders placed after they supposedly started enforcing this (Since April).
As with everything in S.A. enforcement will be haphazard at best, especially if they have just started with this, but that doesn’t mean it won’t become a major problem. I don’t fancy forking out $30- $60 for one of the lights in development that I have been waiting for only to have them disappear into the endless pit of customs. The most worrying aspect of this is that there is apparently no notification, reports are that they just seize the goods and don’t bother to inform anyone.
If we carry on as if nothing has happened the worst case scenario is that months and months of orders just stop arriving, and by the time feedback is obtained, if that is even possible, there is no way of recovery. Total loss, with the possibility of additional complications such as fines, duties, etc.
Does this also apply to packages from friends/family? If not then perhaps items you buy can be routed to you from those outside South Africa? Not that I recommend bypassing customs of course.
I’m sure that would be a way around it, but it is quite an imposition to ask someone to collect, repackage, and then pay shipping for several deliveries a month. The shipping cost alone would likely make it unworkable. That does make me think though, that perhaps some of the packages getting through without an issue are labelled as gifts, many of the Chinese suppliers routinely label that way, and also undervalue the contents.
1st attempt - 15 minutes on the phone to a typical govt employee (At SARS call centre - which is where customs enquiries calls are relayed to), who could only tell me the number of the form I needed to fill in. They cannot explain why the code is necessary, how you use it, how it is picked up whether you have it or not, or where you can get more information on the subject.
Referred to SAPO national call centre (Don’t see how this is relevant, but it was the only suggestion they had)
2nd attempt - 7 minutes on the phone to a SAPO employee who also doesn’t know how it works or why I was referred to them, so he referred me to the local customs office.
3rd attempt - local Durban customs office. No answer.
To Be Continued, 3 attempts is enough for one day.
I don’t know how much is R50K, but could be possible to use a freight forwarder that stores the packages and then sends many items as a single ‘consignment’?
In Uruguay (South America) we are pretty much forced to use that system, as we are limited to 3 packages or ‘consignments’ under 200 US dollars free of taxes, additional packages under 200 US are allowed but heavily taxed (we can choose to pay taxes for a package to save for a later consignment). Packages over 200 US dollars can only be imported 2 times a year (as an individual) and have large administrative taxes to discourage small importers.
R50K is a lot for an individual, over $3000, but you are likely to have to pay duties on any delivery over $50 anyway, even as a consignment of several lower value items. Customs enforcement here is random and unpredictable.
I can see myself having to visit customs and still getting the run-around, without anyone being able to explain to me what the limits are or how they are enforced, or what the costs are.
Sounds like you have it worse over there. How can a small business thrive if it is forced to source all its components locally? I don’t see that as being good for the country, as it will just limit opportunities and thus local employment more than it encourages local production.
It’s not good for the country, but the government gets a lot of revenue from it and unlike other taxes it won’t appear explicitly in a invoice when you buy an item or on your salary receipt, so people that don’t buy directly from overseas will just dismiss them as electronics, cars and other imported goods being expensive. We can’t even blame our leftist government as the system was set up way before. For that reason I don’t think any government will fix that system soon as they would need to increase less popular taxes. Without going deep into politics, as long as people vote them, the government doesn’t really care much about the businesses and they need the money to keep the 10% of the population as (well-paid) public employees.
Sectors with tax exemptions like software, tourism and cellulose are working well but large sectors of the industry are going bankrupt (the government has the monopoly on electricity distribution and oil derivatives production , so they are more expensive than in other countries).
Many items such as toothpaste are imported by a few large importers and then supermarkets and small business will buy from such importers (you may find a few produced locally at a similar price). Such importers can easily pressure the government to keep the system in a way that favors them. Logically, that means that imported items are more expensive than they should. Also you can find a large amount of low quality chinese items, for better quality items can become quite expensive.
I don’t get how they monitor if you have received 3 items or more, I don’t think they have the resourced to manage a central database recording each individuals orders per year.
I also think you if getting more than 3 parcels a year without at least one being stolen in the process is a miracle.
I dont see how this will be enforced .In my case I have all parcels delivered to my work address as our local post office where I stay has been shut down.I know many colleagues are doing the same, that is we all use the same delivery address.All parcels are collected and signed for by the company driver who uses his ID number apon collection. So I fail to see how SARS can monitor this situation.
