Should importers have to pay VAT and duties on goods stolen from a customs warehouse?
SARS says yes, but a court disagrees, in a ruling that could also be brought to bear in certain cases of hijacking and theft of goods in transit
A recent appeal relating to the payment of excise duty and value-added tax (VAT) on goods stolen from customs or excise warehouses has opened the debate on the payment of the duty in the case of armed robberies, hijackings, theft and burglary. In an armed robbery at a bonded warehouse in 2009, 200 cases of cigarettes imported from Zimbabwe were stolen.The importer, a trust trading as Classic Tobacco, argued it was entitled to a full rebate on the duties levied by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) because the robbery amounted to a vis major.A vis major is defined as "some force, power or agency which cannot be resisted or controlled by the ordinary individual, and includes not only the act of nature, vis divina, or act of God, but also the acts of man", in Wille’s Principles of South African Law.The court agreed with the importers. One of the provisions to qualify for a full rebate on goods that are irrevocably lost or destroyed is that it must not have "entered into consumpti...
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