CHIRUNDU BORDER: TRUCKERS TO EXPERIENCE SPEEDY CLEARING OF CARGO
The Chirundu One-Stop-Border Post was the first ever of its kind to be set up in Africa, serving Zambia and Zimbabwe in an effort to reduce time spent by traders during the transportation and clearing of cargo, but this has so far had little impact on the
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU DESPITE Zambia and Zimbabwe being Africa’s pioneers in establishing a One-Stop-Border Post (OSBP) - the Chirundu border, the two countries have not been able to fully realise the benefits that comes with such an important facility.
OSBP aim to eliminate the daily border crossing nightmare with a smooth and efficient system embracing all border procedures, such as customs, immigration and vehicular clearance.
The Chirundu OSBP- serving Zambia and Zimbabwe is considered the first fully functional OSBP in Africa.
Following the launch of the Chirundu OSBP, with the support of development partners, the concept and development of OSBPs has expanded rapidly with the support of development partners as one of the major tools to tackle impediments to the growth of trade in Africa.
In the 2000s the OSBP concept began to be applied across Africa. In 2004, the East African Community (EAC) together with the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority developed the East African Transport and Trade Facilitation Project, which among other activities, called for the development of OSBPs in the region.
However, the Chirundu onestop-border post has not been able to generate as much revenue as it should since its establishment in 2009 due to various reasons.
On September 23 2017, Minister of Finance, Felix Mutati, together with the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) commissionergeneral, Kingsley Chanda and other senior officials toured the Chirundu OSBP following complaints tendered by cross border merchants on the inordinate delays in the clearance of trucks and other commercial vehicles.
The performance of the border did not amuse the minister as it was learnt that trucks were spending eight days at the boundary to clear their cargo instead of the initial 8 hours as it should have been according to its design.
This performance had resulted in the border to be overtaken by other jurisdictions and regions in terms of the effectiveness of operations.
However, Mr. Mutati, while on his tour announced that in the next ten days, from 23rd September 2017, the solution implementation process for the Chirundu-One-Stop-Border will commence.
“We are going to take critical steps to address the problem and ensure that our regional and international competitiveness is escalated through reduction in cost of logistics and transport,
“We need to be bullish about this matter; so we will meet in ten days to begin the solution implementation process,” said Mr. Mutati.
The solution will include new equipment to ensure speedy clearance of goods at the border, efficient collaboration among institutions found there and among others.
Mr. Mutati said unless institutions worked together, Government will not be able to optimise its resources at the border.
“It does not matter whether its customs or Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS), but if the totality of these institutions collapse into one, they minimise the hustle for the taxpayer, we are going to get more and more,
“We have not only been overtaken by other jurisdictions and regions in terms of the effectiveness of border operations, our inception target of eight hours clearance time for trucks has deteriorated to a dismal eight days or more” he said.
The announcement came after the minister observed that increased hours of clearing goods to eight days from the planned eight hours has reduced revenue collection at the Chirundu border post.
According to the minister, Chirundu border post has been behind with revenue targets owing to increased clearing hours thereby impacting negatively on economic development.
It is worth noting that the slow pace at which goods are being cleared has an indirect impact on the economy as traders are made to wait for long hours to continue with their businesses.
It is imperative that if the clearing challenges at Chirundu border are addressed, there will be a positive impact on the cost of doing business while increasing revenue collection by ZRA.
The Chirundu border post remains one of the key important areas in Zambia for trade facilitation and in encouraging intra-African trade which has lagged due to low levels of trade easing and industrialisation.
Mr Chanda, the ZRA chief, emphasised that the organisation has the capacity and resources to turn things around and ensure that the border is effective as planned when it was set up in 2009.
Mr. Chanda said customs clearing companies are a key stakeholder in the clearing of goods at borders worldwide.
“We will meet with the clearing companies with facilities, where possible, to ensure that they embrace the concept of electronic payment systems and pre-clear goods to improve border clearance operations.”
“When this border post was set up in 2009, the initial plan of clearing goods was eight hours but the concept is not the same anymore as people are now spending eight days. This is something which needs to rectified,” Mr Chanda said.
On the other hand, truck drivers at the Chirundu border spoken to last week attributed the delays of their clearance to acts of corrupt activities and slow pace of the scanner.
A spot check by the Daily Nation on Tuesday last week, at the Chirundu one border post found a fleet of trucks in a long queue awaiting to be scanned before being released.
A truck driver of Kasembo Transport who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation said he was asked to pay U$20 dollars at the Zimbabwean side in order to bypass the queue as a token of appreciation.
He said truck drivers were suffering due to many challenges at Chirundu border such as clearing agents also asking for a tip whenever they carried out their duty.
Another truck driver of Sabot Management Limited, Fredrick Kalunga, complained that the scanner on the Zambian side which was supposed to take approximately five minutes was taking more than 20 minutes.
Mr. Kalunga said he has been on the queue for five days but noticed other trucks who spent only hours at the border bypass him and get clearance.
With all these challenges and allegations, it is therefore important to note that implementing an OSBP without simplifying and harmonising border crossing procedures renders an OSBP ineffective.
Whereas users would be required to stop once in order to undertake exit and entry formalities at a border, subjecting such users to routine and redundant formalities would have little impact on reducing the time spent at the border.
The process of reviewing and aligning procedures should be continuous in order to ensure that OSBPs operate with border crossing procedures that are not only effective but also facilitative and relevant to the prevailing circumstances.
Joint operations and the need to observe jurisdiction in an OSBP environment require specific considerations when crafting OSBP procedures.
While all border posts require physical facilities for border operations, the level of facilities required depends on the type and size of operations at a border post.
In principle, facilities for OSBP operations should be appropriately functional and not unnecessarily inadequate.