Don’t pay bribes, says Zimra

THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has urged exporters to stop paying bribes in the processes of exporting their products in order to avoid incurring a lot of costs and to practise clean business in export markets.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ZimTrade Exporter’s conference held in Bulawayo last week, Zimra Commissioner-General Ms Faith Mazani said corruption when acquiring permits, certificates and border checks affects the price of exporters’ products on the international markets.

“We have a very high incidence of corruption, it’s like we are in a culture which says we have to know someone or you have to pay somebody but when you look at the export value chain there is manufacturing, packaging, applying for permits, proving the product’s right of origin, transportation within and outside our borders, inspection at the border so if at each stage one is paying bribes that is costly and will increase the price of the product in the export market. We need to make sure that our processes are tight and we don’t add these costs to the exports,” she said.

Comm-Gen Mazani said there is a need for understanding on tax incentives and their desired results by both Government and parastatals so as to quantify, monitor and control the concessions or rebates.

“The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has to support industries that are exporting because we need the foreign currency which is why there is a need for us as Zimra to understand the concessions or rebates given in export processing zones,” said Comm-Gen Mazani.

“When we give those concessions we need to know the desired results we want from the policy so it’s a question of understanding what we want to achieve by having a system to quantify, monitor and control it and report back because some of these things are just given and nobody then follows them.”

She also said more than US$1 billion was recorded in tax expenditure as rebates in the third quarter of 2019.

@chrispen_gee