$5 cost added to imported items
Its been suggested that a $5 fee be added to all items being imported for exactly what reason I am not sure.
This is separate to adding the GST to items valued at under a $1000 that are currently GST free in the next few months.
I believe the US Post Office added a fee to cover inspection costs either in, out or both after they introduced the 'Home land Security' program in the United States and its one of the reasons postage/freight from the USA is now quite substantial.
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Well say goodby to the $1 (and free postage) orders from China on Ebay, a 500% increase for the item, surely it does not cost border security that much to scan it.Originally Posted by gordon_s1942
Basically this and the 10%GST can be seen as a tarif on imported items but unlike when Trump farts against the wind, nothing happens here.
Mr Norman lobbied hard enough and got his way with the GST, now this $5 which will only hurt those who have little and found the only goods they could afford on Ebay from China.
Handling of the fee will be obviusly managed by Paypal/Ebay/Amazon/Aliexpress, etc so not any significant cost for the goverment, just pure more money grabs.
Will this help local retailers? Not much, many items ordered from overseas are not available in Australia, well that goes for me anyhow.
If I find an item locally I usually bought it here if it is not too much more expensive, yeah the $5 might make a bit of a difference, the 10% was already included in the local item.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 23-03-18 at 11:51 AM.
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How does this help the local retailers. We don't make or grow anything in Australia anymore. If we grow it here it is all exported.
Then cheap shit produce from all the worlds dump markets are brought here for us to enjoy at extremely high prices.
Try buying oranges or other citrus at Coles that are not imported from California. Apparently we don't know how to grow this stuff
here anymore. So your local retailer imports everything they sell, so does it not follow that they will have to pay $5 fee on everything
they import? Oh silly me the big end of town will be excepted as usual.
I don't have a problem with this really...
I mean, given the state of the modern world, they are obliged to check the sh*t so I am prepared to pay.
I don't buy much from overseas anymore as I prefer to shop locally (in Aus)...and no, not at places like Hardly Normal, usually online at places that pay taxes and contribute. The prices are usually little different anyway IMO.
Anyone who thought that the good ol' days of importing oodles of stuff for free were going to just continue forever is dreaming IMO....
The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.
This has FA to do with checking the items bought overseas, its just another grubby money grab, ordered by their paymasters, the retail traders association
VroomVroom (26-03-18)
Yep! Maybe.....got a link? Or is it just your opinion. BTW, my opinion of the RTA is the same as yours.
There's no way they can even approach competent scanning without a substantial increase in logistics.....
The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.
That's just a seasonal thing, we're getting close to the start of the Oz citrus harvest here now but we import from the northern hemisphere in our off season. True that the supermarkets have done their best to kill the local growers' business and a lot of them have found it more rewarding to plough their orange groves into the ground to grow better cash crops instead.
No doubt a money grab, but I see it as a money grab for the right reasons.
Any Australian seller needing to send small items by AusPost needs to pay about $8 for a small parcel. Overseas is significantly more.
Items imported from China cost the sender next to nothing in postage thanks to deals with China Post. Most of these items are dropped shipped then thrown in the regular post service, with not a dollar going towards AusPost or Australia and next to nothing being paid by the seller.
Why should an OS seller pay nothing to send something to Australia, when an Australian seller sending within Australia pays full price? This $5 fee will equal the playing field.
As said above it is unlikely that local sellers will benefit from this because:
1 - Items purchased overseas are often not available locally.
2 - Items are purchased overseas because they become affordable for an increasing amount of those on a low budget. If they can't afford it, they won't buy it.
3. - Those who can afford it don't care about having to pay the fee and will still order overseas and might still be cheaper ($5 fee opposed to $8 local postage)
If this fee would go towards cheaper shipping costs locally, then that would indeed level the playing field for the target group 2 and 3 but that would never happen.
Pure money grab, nothing else.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 24-03-18 at 11:35 AM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
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Blame Jerry Harvey and stop shopping at Harvey Norman - he is the cause of all this.
Nope, he lobbied the 10%GST starting this 1.July.
This is about a fee from Border security to 'cover their costs' of screening everything from overseas.
This is already covered by the tax payer and I doubt it will lead to a relief for the tax payer, it will most likely end up in somebodies pocket but maybe it will also finance more tighter means of screening.
I am not aware if every item private people order is screened but I do know that only a small percentage of imported goods for business is screened due to the high cost and a lot of shit (drugs) can get through. Maybe it might be used to improve that, just an assumption, at least that would be what I would use it for.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 24-03-18 at 12:44 PM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
As enf said, what is the source for all this "information"?
"It's been suggested" by who?
well If Jerry hadn't did all the lobbying he did then this extra tax would not have been considered.
As I said - blame Jerry and Harvey Norman.
Just another greedy tax
mkhannah (24-03-18)
I would prefer to have the border security fees incorporated into shipping cost. That will make things straight. All postage that requires border security check will need to be charged back to the shipping company with obvious shipment cost increase.
enf (25-03-18)
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