Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zambia to ban Car, Grocery exports via Vic Falls Border

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The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has announced it will ban the exportation of a cocktail of goods including vehicles, household items and groceries through Victoria Falls Border starting on 1 March.

The decision is expected to hit hard especially on residents of Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls town who before the lockdown relied on buying groceries, electrical gadgets, second-hand clothes (salaula) among other things from Livingstone, Zambia.

Clearing agents based in Victoria Falls are also fretting over the drastic policy measure as there will be no more imported vehicles entering Zimbabwe through Victoria Falls border.

Residents and Zambian hawkers also used to cross the border to buy or sell various goods without any restrictions.

In a statement, ZRA released restriction of points of exit for exportation of selected commercial goods by road.

It said 16 categories of goods listed in the seventh schedule to Statutory Instrument 115 of 2020 (Customs and Excise Ports of Entry and Routes) which came into effect on 1 January 2021, will not be allowed to leave that country through Victoria Falls border by any other mode of transport other than rail.

Goods carried by rail go through thorough check at departure and in transit unlike those by road where many are smuggled.

“This notice serves to inform all customs clearing agents and exporters wishing to export goods listed in the seventh schedule to Statutory Instrument 115 of 2020 that they should effect the exportation of their goods through the customs ports and aerodromes set out in the eighth schedule to the attached Statutory Instrument 115 of 2020.

“Further, note that goods for export through Victoria Falls border post shall only be transported by rail only effective the 1st of March 2021,” read the SI.

The SI specifies that goods to listed under SI 115/2020 are edible oils, bulk fuels, oils and other hydrocarbon oils, tobacco and tobacco products, motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages.

Electrical goods such as TV sets, radios, refrigerators, air conditioners, bulbs, cables, computers and other electronics, as well as used clothing and shoes, tyres, furniture, batteries, hardware, floor and wall tiles, pipes, bath tubs, toilet pans and timber add to the list.

Maize meal and other maize products, wheat flour, groceries, sweets, biscuits, soups and canned foods, bakery and bread, meat and sea food, snacks and crackers, cereals and other breakfast foods, pasta and rice, milk powder and other dairy products, oils, sauces, salad dressing and condiments complete the list.

Victoria Falls is one of the many borders including Chirundu which Zambia and Zambia share.

The listed goods will now be expected to go via Kazungula border.

Amos Mateyu, a clearing agent in Victoria Falls said the development will put many of them out of business.

“Tough times are coming and our town will be dead soon,” he said.

The Zambian taxman has been at loggerheads with clearing agents in the neighbouring country, and last December, 34 were suspended over a transit fraud scheme amounting to K96 313 164 following removals in transit and forgery offences.

12 COMMENTS

  1. This will stifle the required trade. ZRA officers must be honest and stop being lazy. They should revise all tariff codes and harmonize the situation. That’s where the weakness and confusion is. In Zambia the same type of goods can have several tariff codes that have different conditions on how they can be treated. For example the same item can have 3 different tariff codes, in one it attracts standard VAT & 35% duty, etc; in another it attracts 5% duty and yet in another it’s zero rated! So the clever clearing agents submit documents and quote the zero rated tariff thereby only paying ASCUDA fees. And sometimes they collaborate with ZRA officers. These goods don’t pass through another channel or the bush. They pass through the official route. So the measures by ZRA are sign of…

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  2. The purpose of government is to make life easier for citizens, but our government seems to specialise in making life miserable for people. One Statutory Instrument after another pops up which has not been thought through and people suffer for a while before someone sees sense and reverses it. What worm is eating the brains of our elected officials? If there is a GOOD reason, state it. Tell people WHY.

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  3. @Ayatolla Is it pure ignorance or just spite. Whilst banning export of goods by a mode via a particular border is not the wisest thing, to allege that a single item has multiple h.s. codes is outrageous

  4. Livingstone-Kazungula road may need widening then to cope with the expected increase in traffic volume. But will it? I hope so.

  5. @Max Pico, check on microscope just as 1 example. Or spend time with clearing agents and understand them then you’ll know what I’m talking about. The Ayatollah doesn’t speak from without.

  6. So is this exporting to Zim or importing as most things on the list are not made in Zambia, either way what’s the point of stopping it through Vic Falls but allowing it through KAZungula Border post 60km in the other direction.

  7. If you all read the article properly than rushing to comment, you would have noticed that the only thing ZRA has banned is the MODE OF TRANSACTION of the listed items. And not the items themselves! These goods can still be imported/exported through Vic Falls border post but only by rail. And the reason for this is clearly stated in the article. So what is the freaking problem with some of you people?

  8. Does not make sense if it is export from Zambia what street trader is going to pay freight from Livingstone to Vic falls for a few bags of millie meal or 24 bottles of cooking oil? the cost of rail freight is more than the goods cost, also the goods on the list exported are not subject to export duty (Copper is for example subject to export duty) so really its the Zim customs that are missing the tax dollars not Zambia.

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