adminThe Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) says continued smuggling of foreign goods into the country is threatening the successful implementation of Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016 which seeks to stimulate local production. Zimbabwe recently introduced SI 64 to regulate imports, a move which has been criticized by some quarters but, government is adamant that the move would benefit Zimbabwe in the long term.It has also emphasised that these measures were time bound and would not last forever.SI 64 makes it a requirement for businesses to have an import permit to bring into Zimbabwe goods such as furniture, bottled water, baked beans, salad cream, peanut butter, doors, window frames and a variety of plastic pipes.
Individuals who want to import the affected goods for personal use are still allowed to do so without a special licence. CZR president Denford Mutashu said SI 64 had already proved a success as some local manufacturing firms increased production capacity, hence there was need to stamp out smuggling.
“We took a tour of the tuck shops which are in the Central Business District in the capital and there are a lot of goods that we have concluded have been smuggled in,” he said.
“We discovered that there is a lot of smuggling of goods that is taking place which might take us back and we want to put all efforts so that we stop this.”
Mutashu also urged retailers to desist from unfairly pricing their goods in order to make them competitive. – New Ziana..
Online Reporter