Zimra urged to streamline ops

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

Speaking during a stakeholders meeting held in the border town last week, SFAAZ acting chairperson for Beitbridge chapter Mr John Ndaza said there was need for Zimra to review its standard operating procedures.

He said the 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 at the border.

It is understood that 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,” said Mr Ndaza.

“It is important to note that without a road report running number, Bill of Entries cannot be submitted and a road report running number for export trucks cannot be released.

“In addition, Commercial Vehicle Guarantees (CVG) are usually processed at night and whenever 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 Temporal 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 at the Crew Desk Office.

“It is important to emphasise that these delays at Crew Desk are not technologically accounted for since they are mostly done in a manual environment and the Asycuda system cannot reveal these delays.”

According to Mr Ndaza, it is important for Zimra to separate exports office from imports office and those that deal with CTIPs for haulage trucks and buses.

He said the parastatal should beef up staff at the port of entry and also introduce the use of electronic manifest and electronic CTIP and improve on Doc Checks.

“We note with concern that physical examination for valuation of (second hand vehicles) is conducted only twice a day,” said Mr Ndaza.

“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.”

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