adminPresenting the 2012 national budget in November last year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said with effect from 1 January, Government was adjusting the rate of customs duty on clothing from 40 percent plus $1,50 per kilogramme to 40 percent plus $3 a kilogramme.
He also announced that the fiscal authority was removing clothing from the travellers rebate.
Minister Biti said the measures were meant to provide an opportunity for the clothing industry to grow the economy through the resuscitation of the value chain in the production of clothing since the industry was a labour intensive business requiring relatively little capital.
In an interview from Harare, the president of the Zimbabwe Cross Border Traders’ Association, Mr Killer Zivhu, said they were in the process of preparing a petition against customs duty imposed on clothing.
“We are in the process of organising to hand over our petition to Minister Biti over the 40 percent customs duty plus $3 per kilogramme on every imported clothing. We feel the percentage on duty and the amount charged on every item per kilogramme on clothing and textiles being very high. And this will have a knock-on effect on our business as it pushes our members out of business,” he said.
He said most of their members were selling stock secured last year, adding that as soon as the products were finished they would be closing business.
“Before the end of the month, our members from all corners of the country will hand over a petition to Minister Biti to reconsider reducing duty on textile, clothing and footwear products,” he said.
In the past few years, Zimbabwe saw an influx of imported clothing and footwear products from countries such as South Africa and China.
The local textile and clothing industry, which at the moment is struggling to emerge from the woods, has failed to shrug off stiff competition caused by the flooding of imported textile, clothing and footwear products.
Stakeholders in the local textile and clothing sector have recently called on the Government to increase duty on the industry’s imported products.
Online Reporter