SA Post Office
Duty on parcel was levied erroneously

I collected a parcel (Christmas gift of no commercial value) from the post office in December. I was charged R44.03 in duty. The gift's quoted value (as per SAPO) was R189.00. I later queried this charge with Marcia Van Wyk from SARS who told me that no duty is payable on items valued less than R400.00 whether they are a gift or not. She told me to return to the PO fill in a form to claim a refund. I went back to Rivonia PO, and spoke to Sam Brown who was unable to help me with obtaining said form or giving me a refund. The matter remains unresolved. The 'manifest of foreign parcel- tax invoice' was prepared by Dikeledi of SARS

I am not concerned as much with the refund (although, i am a pensioner and pennies matter) as the fact that clearly between SARS and SAPO, there is confusion as to when duty is payable. if one multiplies my R 40.00 by the thousands of people over the Christmas period who will have paid duty erroneously, SARS is doing quite well out of the confusion.