Zimra urged to streamline operations, beef up staff

Thupeyo Muleya in Beitbridge
THE Shipping and Forwarding Agents’ Association of Zimbabwe (SFAAZ) has called on the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to streamline operations and beef up staff at Beitbridge Border Post to enhance ease of doing business.

Speaking during a recent stakeholders’ meeting held in the border town, SFAAZ acting local chairperson, Mr John Ndaza, said there was a strong need for Zimra to review its standard operational procedures. He said the prevailing set up where both commercial entries of imports and exports were being processed by only two officers at the crew desk had resulted in the slow movement of cargo.

An average of 670 imports and 100 export bills of entries are processed per day at Beitbridge Border Post. Bill of entries are used to clear commercial goods.

“The reporting of trucks is painfully very slow taking up to eight hours before one is served. It is important to note that without a road report running number, bill of entries cannot be submitted and a road report running number of export trucks cannot be released,” said Mr Ndaza.

“In addition, Commercial Vehicle Guarantees (CVG) are usually processed at night and when ever they are processed during the day, more delays are experienced since the officer who issues road report numbers is the same officer who issues CVGs.

“Further, the Commercial Temporary Import Permits (CTIP) for foreign registered trucks are processed in this same office. These vehicles include haulage trucks, all buses and vehicles for cross-border traders. It takes more than 12 hours for a haulage truck to have its CTIP processed. All the challenges mainly emanate from the fact that all these responsibilities are done by only two officers and the Crew Desk Office.”

Mr Ndaza said it was important for Zimra to separate exports office from imports office and those that deal with CTIPs for haulage trucks and buses. He also said Zimra needs to beef up staff at the country’s and Sadc’s busiest port of entry and use electronic manifest and electronic CTIP to improve on document checks.

“We note with concern that physical examination for valuation of (second hand vehicles) is conducted only twice a day. After that it takes up to three days before the valuation is finalised.

“We also urge Zimra to address issues around the manual bills of entry, which take up to three days to be processed. There is no way one can pay for manual entries during weekends and public holidays when banks are closed. Currently, importers are paying full duties on goods that are supposed to enjoy some preferential rates,” he said.

Mr Ndaza said they were still facing challenges with the import licence mark off, which was taking longer than necessary.

“Given the fact that we are in the age of efficient communication than ever before, we expect Zimra to effect the ease of doing business by effectively making use of their internal communication mechanisms to resolve the issues of departure validation without resorting to fines,” he said.