South Africa: SARS seizes huge haul of illicit imports
- Harare The Zimbabwean 2009
The articles talks of illicit illicit trade deals on imports in South Africa from China.It exposes leakages involving main trade actors and authorities .SARS has confiscated more than 100 tons of clothing imports since the mid-December launch of a customs crackdown on goods imported illegally from the Far East . The activity allegedly involved the illegal import of apparel from China that ended up on the shelves of major listed companies. Moreover, SARS is looking into allegations that the buyers of certain listed retailers travel to the East with import agents, identify line items and leave it up to agents to import goods at predetermined prices, thereby putting pressure on importers to bypass import duties through under-invoicing. SARS has apparently also unearthed evidence of the fraudulent use of duty credit certificates and is investigating importers in both KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape. The duty credit certificate scheme is an incentive programme available to the industry that compensates exporters with rebates on import duty.
