The South African Revenue Service (SARS) and Customs will change the system for handling small orders coming into the country from Monday 1 July.
All imports valued at less than R500 now carry the same 45% import duty plus VAT as bigger orders. This effectively means that South Africans will now pay more for orders from online retailers such as Shein and Temu.
South African Chamber of Commerce president Mthokozisi Xulu says the low-cost retail delivery operators had exploited a loophole that was becoming unsustainable for the country’s economy.
“For a very long time, South Africa’s clothing manufacturing industry has been declining badly. We have lost our advantage. We used to be a manufacturing country but over time we have not necessarily been able to do that. So what this opportunity means is that local retailers are not being shielded but they need to make sure that their cost of production, their quality of service and product to the customer is improved,” he says.
