BuaNews (Tshwane)
Oupa Segalwe
26 January 2007
Tshwane — The South African Revenue Services and the South African Federation Against Copyright Theft (SAFACT) have jointly warned the public about the dangers of buying and selling counterfeit goods.
Officials from the two organisations are handing out pamphlets today at designated intersections in the country's major cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban, regarding the dangers of trade in fake goods.
This is in observation of International Customs Day today, under the theme: "Just say no to counterfeit and pirated goods".
SARS joins 169 other customs administrations across the globe, affiliated to the World Customs Organisation (WCO), in observing the day.
"We want to raise awareness around counterfeit trade and the economic and health risks that come with it," SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay told BuaNews today.
Mr Lackay said the officials from SARS and SAFACT would be handing out blank CD covers with information about the dangers of the selling and buying of fake products.
According SARS, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) puts the value of counterfeit and pirated goods at an estimated US$650 billion, adding that the global trade in counterfeit goods was growing at an alarming rate.
The WCO estimates that this kind of trade accounts for seven percent of the total global merchandise trade.
Mr Lackay said in South Africa alone, the rate of confiscations of counterfeit goods was steadily increasing from 335 in the 2004/05 financial year to 725 in the 2005/06 financial year.
The value of the confiscated material in both periods was R235 million and R540 million respectively, he said.
"Those goods included DVDs, CDs, clothing, footwear, cell phones and accessories, cosmetics and vehicle parts," Mr Lackay said.
Spokesperson for SAFACT James Lennox said the film and interactive games industry lost in the region of over R400 million a year to pirated goods in South Africa alone.
Mr Lennox added that the loss was more than R6 billion a year internationally.
"Our core message to consumers is that they must not buy pirated goods and instead support original products," he said.
He said by buying original goods, consumers would be supporting law-abiding companies instead of criminals and they would also save a lot of people from losing their jobs.
It is one SARS' core functions to provide customs services that maximises revenue collection, protect the country's borders and facilitate trade.
It can be achieved by:
* enforcing customs and related trade laws;
* collecting duties and taxes;
* ensuring the social welfare of citizens by controlling the import and export of prohibited and restricted goods; and
* ensuring timeous clearance of goods and facilitating the speedy movement of travellers through South African borders.
These form part of SARS's mandate to support the economy and provide the revenue needed by the government to build democracy.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
