Importers fingered for smuggling
IMPORTERS are responsible for rampant smuggling around our borders by manipulating their invoices to evade paying the correct tax, Customs Clearing and Freight Forwarding Agents Association of Zambia (CCFFAAZ) president Bruce Kaemba has charged.
Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr. Kaemba said while it is also true that there were bad eggs in the clearing industry just like there are bad officers within customs who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, the buck stops at importers.
“Smuggling is rampant at and around our borders. We have discovered that in most cases, importers are the ones who are championing this vice by manipulating their invoices in an effort to avoid paying the correct tax.
“Unfortunately the clearing agent is the one who is portrayed as the smuggler because he has facilitated the clearance of the imported cargo. The truth of the matter is that the clearing agent is a mere go-between between the importer and the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA),” Mr. Kaemba said.
He said smuggling negatively affected the growth of the economy as it robbed Government of the revenue, which was supposed to be used to fund development projects.
“Smuggling has largely been exacerbated by the unstable exchange rate between the Kwacha and the Dollar. For example, an importer will be forced to engage in smuggling when they find that the import tax they are supposed to pay has doubled because of the devaluation of the Kwacha,” he said.
He said efforts to address the issue of smuggling should involve all the stakeholders but that the starting point should be for ZRA to beef up their manpower and ensure that it sealed all the loopholes in the porous borders.
“On our part as the clearing industry we are also working closely with the ZRA to ensure that clearing agents uphold professionalism in their operations. I must make mention that our biggest challenge has been the existence of multiple associations.
“This situation has diluted our efforts to have a strong bargaining power both with ZRA and our clients. However, we are happy to state that efforts to have one association has gained ground and we hope to launch this apex body before the end of this year,” he said.