The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), has unearthed a scam at Katima Mulilo Border Post, in which some unscrupulous importers smuggled cigarettes worth K6 million into the country.
ZRA in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) intercepted and seized 995 cartons of cigarettes without the necessary tax stamps to prevent government from collecting any duty on it.
The owners of the smuggled cigarettes intended to defraud government of over K1.6 million kwacha in other taxes.
ZRA Corporate Communications Manager Mumbuna Kufekisa said the cigarettes were brought into the country without the necessary tax.
ZRA Station Manager at Katima Mulilo Border Post, Thomas Mulenga said one of the seized consignments had 900 boxes and came from Zimbabwe, purporting to be in enroute to Angola.
Mr. Mulenga said the second consignment of 60 cartons was from China and came into the country through Namibia, while the last consignment contained 1, 766 bricks wrapped in black boxes and the owners abandoned it.
“With cigarettes, if they have been seized and have not been paid for; there is nothing like auctioning, they have to be destroyed. So this whole consignment you are seeing here, we are going to have it destroyed by burning,” he said.
And Sesheke Council Health Inspector Jacob Kaveya said issues of smuggling should not be tolerated at any cost.
Mr. Kaveya said the local authority was working with ZRA to win the battle against smuggling.
He however, said challenges came in due to the Zambezi River, which smugglers used to bring in goods at night.
“People are using boats to bring in goods and we cannot capture them because, we do not conduct operations at night,” he said.
…You cannot operate at night? Come on guys, you can’t be serious! Is this one way you are conniving with smugglers in order to avoid paying Taxes? ZRA is a big Govt institution. Table you problem to your bosses in Lusaka and I am sure they can afford to purchase a few speed boats to patrol the Mighty Zambezi during the night and day time. No more silly excuses….
Now I know when and how to smuggle in my goods!
ZRA operations are a joke. Typical government institutions in this country, they want to do the least but charge the earth. One problem with ZRA is the fact that they don’t publish charges. It depends on the officers you find there. The lack of publication of charges causes the following to happen:
1) People cannot budget when importing goods because the charge is liable to change depending on how corrupt the officials you are dealing with are.
2) the lack of publication of charges create an atmosphere ripe for bribery and corruption.
As things only happen when EL intervenes, can you please step on and demand that ZRA publishes charges. Some charges given by officials are inflated to allow bribes!
Why are you advertising your inadequacies and short comings, at least now all the smugglers know to use night time for sure.