Government has reiterated that the soon to be implemented Statutory Instrument(SI) number 32 of 2003 is not aimed at reintroducing exchange controls but at providing transparency and securing benefits for the economy.
And the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has set a threshold of $10,000 (about KR52, 000) of goods for importers and exporters.
BoZ Balance of Payment (BoP) Team Leader, Wilson Mazimba stated that the statutory instrument will allow the country to effectively monitor money flows from imports and exports.
Mr. Mazimba said people must not be worried about the new instrument because it has a lot of economic benefits which include increased revenue and foreign exchange liquidity.
He also said the new law will give proper and credible statistics on balance of payments in the country.
He said the SI will further accord businesses that were operating outside the financial system an opportunity to come on board thereby enhancing financial inclusion.
Mr. Mazimba said this in Lusaka yesterday when he presented a paper on the SI at a media breakfast that was organised by the First National Bank (FNB).
“Exporters will be allowed to avail us with monthly reports to allow us know and plan for the inflows and outflows,” he said.
Mr. Mazimba further said the SI will safeguard the export and import remittances in a bid to reduce the risk of money laundering.
At the end of April this year, Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda signed a statutory instrument that brought into force the Bank of Zambia monitoring of balance of payments regulations 2013, aimed at monitoring the BoP in a transparent and accountable manner.
Government then rescheduled the implementation of the SI from Thursday 16th May 2013 to Monday 1st July 2013 as contained in SI number 35 of 2013.
Mr. Chikwanda said the rescheduling of the SI implementation date was meant to give room to finance service providers and other relevant stakeholders to establish systems for adhering with the provisions of the instrument.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Zambia has set a $10,000 (KR52, 000) threshold for exports and imports in the country.
Mr. Mazimba stated that businesses were therefore allowed to export goods and services greater than or equivalent to the said amount in any other foreign currency.
He further explained that payments of more than the threshold but less than $100,000 will need to be remitted electronically while amounts more than $100,000 will be paid by way of irrevocable letters of credit.
ZANIS
Why is it that there are no comments on this issue?You don’t understand the topic?
Kaili there is no mention of HH, Sata etc
This language is weird t them, by the time they finish reading they would have forgotten what was mentioned in the first sentence
The short of this is that smuggling has been legalised.
Trouble being that the reporter has no clue whatsoever, language is not palatable enough for any lay person!!! What we need are business and economics journalists as opposed to craft journalists from Hone!!!
Why should I rush to my book shelf or open my browser every time our journalists run articles of a business nature?
Amazing!!!
This appers a good piece of forex control measure.. Lets hope the kwacha starts improving against the USD starting 1st July 2013..
Yes no mention of Sata or HH will scare away some pipo from commenting. By the way the ZWD has been solted out, we will have no more nonsense from that site. It will never come back. Boma ni Boma
What do you meant ZWD has been sorted out ?? You cant access the site some of us can
What is “solted out” ?
Chimbwi iwe, Watchdog is up and running. If you are technologically challenged, just say so mambala iwe. Wanyala wooooo!!!!
Chimbwi iwe, Watchdog is up and running. Just say if you are technologically challenged. Wanyala wooooo!!!
Solted out? You,meant sorted out you iddiot.never am accessing mighty ZWD easily more than before
Even in chINA WHERE PF is copying this nonsence from,facebook and youtube are barred but umusungu musungu,he has taken vpn and freegate softwares you just download on your gadget fya isuka,what will stop that in zambia,its just another business opportunity the have opened
Akabwili. Do you actually know what VPN is or ever used it? Ubututu muleke! No one is blocking ZWD they are just afraid of their own ether shadows.
This a good measure, but USD10, 000 is a small threshold, does it mean we have the majority of importers and exporters dealing in small amounts of money? If yes, then we are still a long way to grow commerce and trading in this country at inter-country level. What is the Ministry of Commerce and Trade doing to promote SMEs to participate effectively in the economy.
I did wonder about the same. Some of the vehicle imports for example require more money than that K52M.
Hopefully we are not overacting to a malpractice without considering a better way of doing this.
My understanding is that if you are goin to import or export for 10000 or more then you need BOZ clearance. I am not sure. I failed the first year economics course and lost interest in theories. Sounds good as a monotoring mechanism. Genuine business people need not worry. Dubious ones are definately in trouble.
Now I am completely and utterly confused. Where are our economists on this site to shed light on these threshold shenanigans? What does it mean to all of us? Reintroduction of the black market and legalisation of Katondo street the commercial centre of Zambia? Are we back in our old marketeering ways and hidden transactions to escape the clutches of government from taking little crumbs that we make in our private dealings as this government cannot give us employment? I have more questions than answers and more guns than roses. Where is Yambayamba or Chirwa and our nude princess to explain this? Otherwise, it is all gobbledygook to me. I need practical examples such as, I import a car worth $11000.00 with a view of selling it on as means of making a little money to feed my offsprings as…
As said, I need practical examples such as, I import a car worth $11000.00 with a view of selling it on as means of making a little money to feed my offsprings as there’s no employment in Zambia, does the state want a penny from this initiative?
See how our brainless box called Mushota has gone into hiding? Come out to play Mushota. This is how we got Mariah cooking us Curry and now we have Mushota shooting herself. Tell us what your uncle Alex is up to ‘Mushooter’ or is it Mupincher?
Nothing personal Mushota, you are actually fun to have on LT and anyone who can’t separate your chaff from my grain is the f00l.
What it means now is that the government will be aware of your imports or exports through the documents that you are going to sign at the bank to facilitate this importation or exportation of those goods. You will be required within a period of time I think it is 60 days which in my view is not enough to declare to them the status of this transaction.
This way the hope to ensure that you pay taxes to be used by them to pay the more than 150 minister and also to hold more by-elections.
They want to strengthen the taxation system and cramp down on tax evasion. The want to save money by taking it from you to develop the family forest and maybe also the nation apart from Southern Province which they intend to be mutilating until it is all gone. L’tone will soon be realigned to…
What it means now is that the government will be aware of your imports or exports through the documents that you are going to sign at the bank to facilitate this importation or exportation of those goods. You will be required within a period of time I think it is 60 days which in my view is not enough to declare to them the status of this transaction.
This way the hope to ensure that you pay taxes to them to be used to pay the more than 150 minister and also to hold more by-elections.
They want to strengthen the taxation system and cramp down on tax evasion. The want to save money by taking it from you to develop the family forest and maybe also the nation apart from Southern Province which they intend to be mutilating until it is all gone. L’tone will soon be realigned to…
Mushota used to be my neighbour in Mufulira….a very sofiscated prostitute and changed men like shirts
Does this affect car importers as well? Shed more light ma Economists kaili?? Too many SI in this PF era!!
It affects all importations and exportations for as long as the funds you have remitted for the same is over USD10,000. You will now pay the correct taxes. ZRA now will have genuine values of your car as they will have access to the documents. You will be required to sign an acquittal similar to a retirement or return with the prescribed period. By so doing they will now whether you have not cheated them on the taxation aspect.
Brace yourself more taxes & SIs in the name of infrastructure development
It affects all importations and exportations for as long as the funds you have remitted for the same is over USD10,000. You will now pay the correct taxes. ZRA now will have genuine values of your car as they will have access to the documents. You will be required to sign an acquittal similar to a retirement or return with the prescribed period. By so doing they will now whether you have not cheated them on the taxation aspect. You will now pay your fair share of the taxes my friend
It affects all importations and exportations for as long as the funds you have remitted for the same is over USD10,000. You will now pay the correct taxes. ZRA now will have genuine values of your car as they will have access to the documents. You will be required to sign an acquittal similar to a retirement or return with the prescribed period. By so doing they will now whether you have not cheated them on the taxation aspect. You will now pay your fair share of taxes you car dealers.
Basically these are exchange controls.
It does not take effort to defend a good thing. The fact that lots of effort has been spent explaining it without being understood means its not good. This is exactlly where Zimbabwe was in 2005, a few years before they lost their currency.
If a girl is beautiful, does she need a campaign team around her to anounce her beauty?. There have been several SI’s signed. Why havent they taken too much effort to explain before being understood?
Somehow our scale of how we view money is defective. $10,000 is nothing in terms of exports and imports. The best way to raise money is to lower the tax treshold to say KR1800 to broaden the tax base, in addition to taxing the informal sector through having designated areas to trade from, not streets as is the…
This SI aims at recording and monitoring of transactions of the EXIM (export and import ) nature. This will allow GRZ to know better the amounts the companies and other exporters are making. then the government can come up with appropriate tax regimes and compliance monitoring mechanisms.
This is good for the country as we need the money to improve on our infrastructure in the country. We are in a hurry to develop Zambia.
You think bye-elections and unplanned districts qualify to be called infrastructure?
Ba Wiza naimwe. I picked on infrastructure among so many government responsibilities, including paying your salary. Infrastructure is so important and is the thrust of the PF.
Bye-elections are an inevitable component of a vibrant democracy, under the current constitutional arrangement. If your Howard Kunda crosses to PF will you blame it on PF? It takes two to tangle bakaamba.
Now, creation of new districts is a wonderful idea. Zambia is too vast for efficient delivery of services to the people. You do not need to be on a great trek to the boma to go and get your son an NRC. Secondly, this is a form of employment creation. The infrastructure in these districts shall be put up tekanya fye mwisho. PF means business unlike your MMD’s 20 years of fluffing.
Ba Wiza bakalamba. How does a mine externalizing $10m a month and not paying tax translate to by-elections and districts? In short bakalamba these chaps have been gongaing us and this has to stop now! full stop!
PF is so obsessed with controlling US dollar availability. One wonders why they don’t just adopt the US dollar as Zambia’s currency and put an end to this nonsense. Too many regulations are not good for business.
In street language, we are back to the good old days. Katondo street.Business will go underground as honest traders will be penalised but crooks will be rewarded.
@Kaufella, Yen Sha!, I here you. You and I speak the same language and exactly my thinking. No need to bring anything in the country. We’ll deal with the currency. It is lighter to carry!!!
^ I hear you rather – English, kan ich in deustche sprechen bitte?
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The boat is sinking and the captain is asking for the life boat.
10pin USA quiet low, it should have started may be at 20Pin, this will definitely kill a lot of initiatives that have helped Zedians survive. On the other hand GRZ will collect correct taxes as cheating will not be easy, of course that’s ok if we can as well see our taxes working for correct things definitely not bye elections, ministerial hefty allowances and $100,000 Pajeros from southern cross for them and PS. We need seriousness for once when dealing with national coffers, the money to be raised from all these activities should go into reserves as it wasn’t highlighted in this budget. Lets brace for higher reserves as well at the end of this financial year.
it happens every where in Zim, south africa etc but these economys have alot other well managed economic activities that support poor citizens with out leting the rich exploit the system.the system was revised by chiluba to make trading easy for the our illiterate populace and also to encourage them use their entreprenueral skills to make a living, the PF should safe guard this while clamping down on the rich and capital investers.Controls are eventually pay off.
this pays off eventually but govt should cushion the poor and still encourage entreprenuership by making business easy to do.