Thousands of importers and exporters applying for permits from the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) will, in future, have to pay a fee for the first time for the services of the organisation.
Itac is responsible for import and export control, trade remedies and tariff investigations across the borders of SA. Budgetary constraints and the need to invest in the modernisation of its systems have prompted Itac to embark on this course of action.
The Treasury’s estimates of national expenditure tabled in parliament with the 2025/26 budget noted that over the next three years, Itac planned to issue 16,000 import and 12,000 export permits per year.
Itac was allocated R119m for the 2025/26 financial year in the latest budget, R123m in 2026/27 and R129m in 2027/28.
Itac communications manager Thalukanyo Nangammbi said in reply to questions from Business Day that the fees would be paid by applicants seeking its assistance.
“In light of ongoing budgetary constraints, Itac has been considering levying [limited] fees to reimburse it for certain costs it incurs in carrying out the functions assigned to it under the International Trade Administration Act, other legislation or by the minister of trade, industry and competition. This is not unlike other government departments that require the payment of a fees for services rendered,” Nangammbi said.
“This is a new process, which has become necessary because of budgetary constraints facing Itac. Guidelines are being developed to explain to interested parties the purpose of the fees, the proposed fee amounts, as well as the administrative steps involved in the levying and payment of the requisite fees,” he said.
Although Itac needs to make up for the shortfalls in ongoing, reduced budget allocations, it is the intention of Itac to keep fee levels reasonable so as not to hamper the related economic activity.
“Although Itac needs to make up for the shortfalls in ongoing, reduced budget allocations, it is the intention of Itac to keep fee levels reasonable so as not to hamper the related economic activity.”
The fees would be imposed, for example, on the processing of applications for permits and certificates under phase two of the Automotive Production and Development Programme, the processing of applications for permits and certificates for the rebate or drawback of ordinary customs duties and the processing of applications for import and export permits.
“Although Itac performs other functions, these functions were deemed unsuitable for the levying of fees, generally because of the number of variables involved in these functions which made them unsuitable for predetermining a fee,” Nangammbi explained.
He said Itac had appointed a service provider for the modernisation of its permit system with the goal being to streamline the processing of import and export permits, reduce waiting times and improve on the interaction with other government departments, in particular the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
“It is anticipated that the cost will be several million rand,” Nangammbi said.
Trade industry and competition minister Parks Tau said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by DA spokesperson on trade, industry and competition Toby Chance, that the current approach to supporting Itac’s work was to diversify its resourcing to include fees for its processes.
The next step was to issue guidelines that detailed the fees for specified processes. Once those had been issued in the first quarter of 2025/26, the regulations and the guidelines would be submitted to Tau for approval.
The minister said the process to get approval, and to implement the guidelines and regulations to levy fees, was expected to be concluded by March 2026.
“A further part of the approach relates to internal investments being undertaken by the commission to strengthen the capacity for ‘real time’ review [of tariffs],” Tau said.
However, in the medium to long term, it was Tau’s view that Itac and Sars needed better tools for the review, not only of the ‘coverage’ of a tariff but also its effective protection.
“This will allow the commission to gauge the extent to which protective measures curbing unfair price behaviour (such as anti-dumping, countervailing or safeguard measures) function effectively in line with their intended purpose. This work will require investments in some ‘machine-learning’ enabled tools that can undertake specific tasks (for example pick up price and volume anomalies across different tariff headings), that further strengthen the enforcement of key measures and the overall coherence and desirability of our tariff schedule.”
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