NEW MEASURES FOR THE CUSTOMS & EXCISE (TARIFFS) ORDER

The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in his budget statement to Parliament on Thursday, 2nd March 2023, announced new measures for Domestic Taxes and Customs & Excise. Whereas new measures for Domestic Taxes will become effective on 1st April 2023 after due process of the relevant Bills, the Customs & Excise measures became effective on the midnight of 2nd March 2023.

These are:

1. Removal of import duty on urinary drainage bags under tariff subheading 3926.90.10;

2. Removal of import duties on gas appliances such as cookers and hotplates under tariff subheadings 7321.11.10 and 8516.60.91;

 3. Removal of import duties and import excise on electric motor vehicles

 4. Removal of import excise of 5% on electric road tractor for semi – trailer under 8701.24.00;

 5. Introduction of 5% import excise on roofing tiles coated with acrylic paint under tariff subheading 7308.90.80;

 6. Creation of a new tariff subheading 8504.40.92 to cater for electric motor vehicle chargers and to be imported duty-free

 7. Creation of new tariff subheadings to cater for exercise books with soft covers and exercise books with hard covers;

  8. Insertion of import duty rates in Column 7A which contains AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) rates;

 9. Revision of traveler’s rebate (allowance) on personal non-commercial accompanied baggage from MK300,000 to MK750,000 under Customs Procedure Code (CPC) 4000.429;

 10. Increase of the value from MK50,000 to MK100,000 under CPC 4000.427, which caters for goods imported through courier or postal services;

 11. Insertion under CPCs 419, 420, 479, and 496 the words “of heading 87.03” after the words “passenger carrying motor vehicles.”

 12. Deletion of the special requirements under Customs Procedure Codes 416, 417, 430, 479, and 496 and replacing a new requirement which allows an importer to dispose of a vehicle duty free after 5 years

 13. Restriction of the duty-free waiver for consumables (cutlery, bed linen etc.) imported under CPC 442 for tourism to be enjoyed only during the initial investment period;

 14. Under Customs Procedure Code 452, in addition to importation of one bus of a seating capacity of 26 persons or more including the driver duty free by Church/Mosque, credible religious institutions owning at least 5 education or health institutions can now import 2 passenger motor vehicles of tariff heading 87.03 duty free in every 5 years

 15. Creation of a new CPC 498 to cater for goods for the construction of electric motor vehicle charging station;

 16. Creation of a new CPC 499 to cater for building materials for construction of, and farm machinery and equipment, including irrigation materials for use on a mega farm or agro- industrial park farm as licensed by the Ministry responsible for Agriculture;

 17. Increase of warehouse rent for importers who keep their goods with the Malawi Revenue Authority warehouses from MK500 per tonne or cubic meter per month to MK1,000 per tonne or cubic meter per day

 18. Introduction of specific taxes on second hand imported motor vehicles manufactured between the years 2000 and 2020 while those outside these years will continue to be cleared using ad valorem customs duty rates using their transaction value

 19. Amendment of the Customs and Excise Act to provide for administrative hearing processes under the Industrial Rebate Scheme before the Commissioner General of the MRA decides on their industrial rebate status

 20 Introduction of a requirement that exportation of all non-traditional agricultural produce to be exported from a customs-controlled export warehouse as designated by the Commissioner General of MRA

John S. Biziwick

 COMMISSIONER GENERAL