ZRA cracks meat smuggling scam

THE rate at which the Zambia Revenue Au-thority (ZRA) is smashing smuggling rackets that would have seen Zambia lose colossal sums of money in revenue is commendable but at the same time worrisome. While the ZRA is undoubtedly, on top of things in its crucial battle against greedy, im-penitent syndicates of smugglers, it is obvious that this war is far from over. The busting of smuggling rackets every other day by the ZRA exemplifies the magnitude of the problem which needs to be addressed seri-ously. It is not even surprising anymore that media reports about the ZRA impounding or seizing trucks carrying illegal contrabands have be-come a daily feature. Barely five days after intercepting 50 trucks carrying various illegally imported items, worth K42.3 million in taxes, the ZRA anti-smuggling unit yesterday unearthed yet an-other scam. Ten employees have since been suspended for allegedly working in cohort with the smugglers. The latest scam involves transit fraud that could have cost the treasury K408, 000 in rev-enue loss. As expected, ZRA has suspended the clearing licence for Federal Cargo Lim-ited, a Zambian company that was responsible for clearing the intercepted cargo. The scam, according to ZRA corporate com-munications manager, Topsy Sikalinda, in-volved a truck carrying meat products pur-ported to be in transit to the Democratic Re-public of Congo (DRC) when in fact not. He observed that part of the meat products were instead offloaded in Zambia, at Ilobezi Zambia Limited, situated between Mazabuka and Monze. This state of affairs is exceedingly worrisome and shows that the smugglers are determined to continue ripping the country off its well-deserved revenue, but this must be stopped. The fact that smugglers don’t want to give up means, there is still some loose ends or loop-holes which the ZRA still needs to seal to completely deter the criminals. Obviously, smuggling cannot take place with-out connivance of some corrupt ZRA employ-ees, including some in law enforcement wings. This, we believe, is among the loopholes the ZRA needs to seal and prevent the situation from being perpetuated further. It is very disheartening that illegal consign-ments are in some cases able make through customs and reach their intended destination because of corrupt officials. This is not as it should be because smuggling severely harms the economy through loss of revenue as seen in the colossal sums that could have been lost in the two incidents in questions. For a country determined to grow its econo-my, smuggling should not be fought at all costs because it undermines the local industry, discouraging legal imports while at the same time reducing levies collected by the state. Apart from revenue loss, smuggling results in distortion of market prices and collapse of lo-cal industries. We therefore salute ZRA and law enforce-ment wings for their enthusiastic efforts to eradicate the scourge. These efforts have of late seen the ZRA roll up its sleeves and foil numerous smuggling rackets that would have seen the country lose revenue. However, the smugglers are becoming more and more sophisticated in evading tax and so should the ZRA up its game. We therefore appeal to the anti-smuggling unit not to relax but to upscale their opera-tions throughout the country to fight the scourge.