Delayed decisions on custom duties and anti-dumping measures are costing the South African exchequer 1.25 billion South African rands ($76 million), Fin24, the financial news portal, said, citing a report by XA Global Trade Advisors.

The advisory said that the treasury would have collected 1.25 billion South African rands had the decisions been implemented on time.

South Africa collects around 55 billion South African rands per annum in customs duties; hence, these delays are equivalent to more than 5% of the country’s total customs duty collections.

The advisory believed these losses could be fixed if overdue cases were finalised, stating that the majority of cases have been concluded by the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) and only need to be signed by the ministers of finance, trade, industry and competition. 

“We know that most cases leave ITAC fairly quickly. The bulk of the delay is sitting with one or two ministries,” said Donald Mackay, CEO of XA Global Trade Advisors.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )