Chronicle Editor
Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have embarked on an excise management technical mission expected to capacitate the tax authority with modern tools in collecting revenue from excisable products.
IMF is one of Zimra’s development partners offering technical assistance programmes in various tax and customs fields ranging from coordinated border management, debt management, tax and revenue management systems, tax audits, authorised economic operators and mirror data among others.
The virtual engagement began on Monday and ends on September 21 with IMF customs and excise experts Mr Janos Nagy and Ms Fanny Euran facilitating.
During the opening session of the mission, Zimra Commissioner General, Ms Regina Chinamasa, said they were exploring other digital tools that can be utilised to enhance collection systems.
“Our excise has been largely outward looking as we have been collecting more revenue from fuel but we would like to perform better in other areas. We want to look at other digital tools that can be utilised to enhance our collection systems,” she said.
In the second quarter 2022, Zimra collections of Excise Duty exceeded target by 130,14 percent and contributed 13,05 percent to overall collections.
Zimra collects Excise Duty from fuel, airtime, wines, beers and spirits, opaque beer powder, tobacco products and on used motor vehicles. However, the tax collector said the biggest challenge in collection of Excise Duty is smuggling of fuel where fuel is declared as transit yet offloaded and used in Zimbabwe.
In 2021, Zimra intercepted three transit fuel trucks at Chirundu One Stop Border Post that were allegedly smuggling fuel into the country under the pretense that it was Zambia-bound, yet the fuel had been offloaded and containers filled with water — in the process prejudicing the country of potential revenue through organised crime.
Measures put in place by Zimra to curtail such smuggling activities include electronic cargo tracking systems and fuel testing for all transit vehicles that declares to carry fuel.
The fuel testing uses a water finder, which is capable of detecting if the product is real fuel or water. Such measures are expected to disarm all fuel smuggling syndicates that have been importing fuel into the country without paying any duties due.
A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) titled: “Growing Intra-African Trade Through Digital Transformation of Border and Customs Services”, focusing on the African continent said Zimra has seen improved tax compliance due to its new electronic cargo tracking system (ECTS), which has enhanced monitoring of taxpayers and transit freight in the country.
According to the WEF report, in the first year of using ECTS, Zimbabwe’s tax regulator managed to intercept a significant number of cases of cargo fraud while the number of new tax registrations recorded went up markedly.
“Four tankers that entered Zimbabwe with 140 000 litres of diesel were detained after it emerged that while supposedly in transit to the DRC, their contents were illegally emptied within Zimbabwe and replaced with an equivalent volume of water. This saved Zimbabwe US$55 650 in excise during the month of the incident,” WEF said in its report.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter