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ZIMRA Celebrates International Customs Day

by Staff Reporter
01 Feb 2018 at 07:36hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) along with its customs and border management partners around the world celebrated International Customs Day commemorations, which were held in Mutare on 26 January 2018.

This year's commemorations ran under the theme, "A secure business environment for economic development". The theme goes in line with the ZIMRA Board's drive to create a conducive environment for efficient revenue collection and trade facilitation.

In his keynote address during the celebrations, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Willard Manungo urged the ZIMRA to take measures that makes cross-border trade processing more secure, efficient and streamlined, which benefits the Authority and the Zimbabwean economy.

"I, call upon players in the Customs fraternity to create an enabling environment by continuously streamlining procedures so that they are easy to follow", said Mr Manungo.

"There should be proactive strategies to fight corruption, enhancing integrity and facilitating the movement of goods and people in general" he said.

Stakeholders were encouraged to make this year's theme a reality not only by ensuring a secure business environment, but also by cooperating and making every effort to ensure the payment of duties and taxes is on time and in full.

The WCO Secretary General, Dr Kunio Mikuria's speech was read by the ZIMRA Acting Commissioner for Customs and Excise, Mr Adrian Swarres.

"The WCO will continue to enhance the promotion of relevant tools, instruments and initiatives as well as the work being done in areas as diverse as combating cross-border crime, engagement with stakeholders, data collection and analysis, digitalisation of Customs services, effective management of cross-border e-Commerce transactions, standardization of information exchange, strengthening Customs-Tax cooperation, tackling trade mis-invoicing and fighting corruption," read part of the speech.

International Customs Day is commemorated annually under the auspices of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) since the Convention establishing the Customs Co-operation Council was officially inaugurated in Brussels on 26th of January 1953.

Source - Byo24News