A Queensland solar wholesale business has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in recovered Duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) following an investigation by the Australian Border Force (ABF) into the importation of Chinese aluminium rails used to mount solar panels. The investigation by the ABF Compliance Audits Unit focused on a number of consignments imported into Brisbane over a four-year period.
The investigation found aluminium rails had been falsely declared as other aluminium products to avoid the payment of Countervailing Duty, Dumping Duty and Customs Duty.
The Australian Government imposes Countervailing Duty and Dumping Duty to combat the dumping of low-priced overseas goods below their ‘normal value’, which causes, or threatens to cause, material injury to an Australian industry. In this case the misleading statements caused a shortfall of $186,618 in Customs Duty, $247,823 in Dumping Duty, $564,507 in Countervailing Duty and a further $99,387 in GST. In total, the company was ordered to pay $1,098,336.
In a separate case, a national solar energy company based in Victoria has been ordered to pay more than $280,000 for also trying to evade Dumping and Countervailing Duty. The investigation focussed on the misclassification of solar mounting kits imported into Australia from China between 2015 and 2018.
A spokesperson for the ABF said they were targeting businesses that deliberately and deceptively tried to avoid trade remedy measures, pointing out that importers who evade paying the correct amount of duty and GST are depriving the Australian economy and ultimately Australian taxpayers. As Australia’s Customs service, the ABF has made trade enforcement one of its key operational priorities.
As licensed Customs Brokers and International Freight Forwarders, Colless Young offers you professional advice on the correct procedures to follow when importing from overseas, including tariffs, GST and dumping laws. We handle imports & exports, both airfreight and seafreight, at all Australian ports and airports.
