Zimra moves towards single clearance at ports of entry

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) will later this year bring together all agencies that are involved in border checks processes into a single clearance platform as it works towards improving Zimbabwe's ease of doing business rankings.

According to Zimra Commissioner General Faith Mazani, the single entry point will be commissioned with the help of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

"The single window environment will provide an automated single entry point for clients to submit documents for use by all Government stakeholders involved in the clearance process. It's implementation is planned to begin this year with assistance from UNCTAD.  Under the Ease of Doing Business rankings process the implementation of a single window environment is considered and will give Zimbabwe a better ranking under the thematic area Trading Across Borders, it will also have a positive impact on all six indicators measured under Trading Across Border, from ZIMRA," she said.

The move comes as customs duty collections were near flat in the first quarter to March at $91.26 million after deducting custom duty refunds from $90.28 million in the comparable year-ago period. Gross collections were $91.52 million which was 11.81% below the target of $100.78 million. Chairman Callisto Jokonya noted that though import volumes grew, collections from import duties were negatively impacted by the charging of duty in foreign currency, which saw a drop in imports like cars. Zimstat statistics, however, point to a drop in overall imports.