South Africa wants to confront online retailers allegedly exploiting tariff loopholes

mylesillidge

mylesillidge

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Temu and Shein crackdown in South Africa

Trade, industry, and competition minister Ebrahim Patel says the South African government wants to confront international online retailers accused of exploiting tariff loopholes to undermine local stores.

According to a Sunday Times report, the minister believes that one of the biggest import-related challenges for local retailers is getting to grips with the dominance of Temu and Shein.
 
And yet SARS is collecting those duties from Temu and SHEIN.

Amazing that the honorable minister can’t take 5 minutes to call sars and ask.



This is about skipping BEE, and retailers lining the pockets of the ministers to kill competition.
 
The logistics company acts as our customers’ agent with the local customs and tax authorities to clear the package, process, and remit applicable taxes.
Click to expand...
It's not apartheid, it's the courier companies.
 
Oh, iv ordered around 4 times in the past month (non clothing) and their courier Buffalo each times raised vat/taxes roughly equal to 1/3 in total of the order. Small electronic things totals under R400 for the order.

Sounds about right with 15% vat and perhaps 15-35% duties applied. Don't pay and they wont deliver.

Miss the Aliexpress days of DMing the store and saying “please mark item as gift $10 TOY”. It always arrived marked that way, 9/10 times no issue unless customs opened it, found a phone and asked for +- R100 tax. Evidenced by the customs tape. And to give them credit not once did they so much as put a fingerprint on the item (they were all Xiaomis), they were exceptionally carefull.

So I don't know what the fuss is, Temu and Shein are playing by the rules, at least in my case. Why cheaper? No middlemen! TAL and their resellers are just two rent seeking middlemen who are crying about losing their cut. Move with the times, same way metered taxis had to compete with Uber.

Embrace change or die the way Telkom did, innovate, don't rely of regulatory protection.
 
bixt said:
Oh, iv ordered around 4 times in the past month (non clothing) and their courier Buffalo each times raised vat/taxes roughly equal to 1/3 in total of the order. Small electronic things totals under R400 for the order.

Sounds about right with 15% vat and perhaps 15-35% duties applied. Don't pay and they wont deliver.

Miss the Aliexpress days of DMing the store and saying “please mark item as gift $10 TOY”. It always arrived marked that way, 9/10 times no issue unless customs opened it, found a phone and asked for +- R100 tax. Evidenced by the customs tape. And to give them credit not once did they so much as put a fingerprint on the item (they were all Xiaomis), they were exceptionally carefull.

So I don't know what the fuss is, Temu and Shein are playing by the rules, at least in my case. Why cheaper? No middlemen! TAL and their resellers are just two rent seeking middlemen who are crying about losing their cut. Move with the times, same way metered taxis had to compete with Uber.

Embrace change or die the way Telkom did, innovate, don't rely of regulatory protection.
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VAT on international orders is against 110% of the value excluding shipping and then on top of that is a default handling/clearance fee of I recall R54 or some such.

So on R400 you would pay R66 in VAT and the R54 handling fee for a total of R120.

That’s without any duties.
 
Shop like a billionaire.... TEMUUUU.... Shop like a billionaire.... TEMUUUUU
 
SauRoNZA said:
VAT on international orders is against 110% of the value excluding shipping and then on top of that is a default handling/clearance fee of I recall R54 or some such.

So on R400 you would pay R66 in VAT and the R54 handling fee for a total of R120.

That’s without any duties.
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If you imported a container/pallet or something and had it cleared thru a shipping agent using your sars customs clearance code. I have one, applicable for business not personal use. Personal thing slip thru.

Normally u pay 15% on the purchase price (i.e 15% of 100%)

Imports u inflate the order by 10% to get to 110% of purchase price. And then pay VAT on that. (I.e (100% x 10%) x 15%. Marginally higher not doubly so.
 
There are items on Temu that if customs vat etc. marked up 200% it would still be cheaper on Temu than Takealot.
 
People never see the bigger picture.

The online retailers sells stuff much cheaper and floods the markets, thus destroy the local industry that shuts down, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Competition we say.

Then once the local market is destroy they hike up the prices, so we have to buy the junk at 5-10x the price because no one local makes it anymore.

But then we have say 100 000 people more on social wellfare, and how to deal with that? Raise and raise taxes.

So eventually you will just have to pay more tax to cover for buying stuff cheaper once.

Sad reality.
 
Corelli said:
People never see the bigger picture.

The online retailers sells stuff much cheaper and floods the markets, thus destroy the local industry that shuts down, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Competition we say.

Then once the local market is destroy they hike up the prices, so we have to buy the junk at 5-10x the price because no one local makes it anymore.

But then we have say 100 000 people more on social wellfare, and how to deal with that? Raise and raise taxes.

So eventually you will just have to pay more tax to cover for buying stuff cheaper once.

Sad reality.
Click to expand...
No, it’s just you who doesn’t understand basic economics or business management.

Chapter one of both textbooks.
 
South African retailers have all the same goods different shades for years they have blocked local fabric retailers from selling certain fabrics . They are also political and prices include huge theft cost as it is difficult to police because of union backlash.
I have bought good quality from Shein at an affordable price. 2 weeks later a retailer had similar product, with exact same fabric in stock.
 
bixt said:
If you imported a container/pallet or something and had it cleared thru a shipping agent using your sars customs clearance code. I have one, applicable for business not personal use. Personal thing slip thru.

Normally u pay 15% on the purchase price (i.e 15% of 100%)

Imports u inflate the order by 10% to get to 110% of purchase price. And then pay VAT on that. (I.e (100% x 10%) x 15%. Marginally higher not doubly so.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you are saying.

It's almost like you are saying exactly what I was saying but using different words that make less sense.

Hard to be sure.
 
bixt said:
If you imported a container/pallet or something and had it cleared thru a shipping agent using your sars customs clearance code. I have one, applicable for business not personal use. Personal thing slip thru.

Normally u pay 15% on the purchase price (i.e 15% of 100%)

Imports u inflate the order by 10% to get to 110% of purchase price. And then pay VAT on that. (I.e (100% x 10%) x 15%. Marginally higher not doubly so.
Click to expand...
Imagine using words like marginally but still abusing u and thru. Unless you're a 13 year old girl, use full words like a grown up.
 
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