- Starting from 1 March, The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) will be imposing a ban on exports of goods through Victoria Falls Border.
- ZRA has released restriction of points of exit for exports of selected commercial goods by road.
Victoria Falls is one of the many borders which Zambia and Zimbabwe share. It acted as a robust corridor for trade between the two neighbours. The Zambian taxmen have been at loggerheads with clearing agents in Zimbabwe over transit frauds.
Starting from 1 March, The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) will be imposing a ban on exports of goods through the Victoria Falls Border. The move is expected to adversely impact the residents of Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls town who relied on buying groceries, electrical gadgets, second-hand clothes etc from Livingstone, Zambia. So far, traders from Zimbabwe and Zambia faced no restrictions to cross the Victoria Falls border to buy or sell various goods. With the drastic policy change on the part of the Zambian government, no more imported vehicles will enter Zimbabwe through Victoria Falls border.
ZRA has released restriction of points of exit for exports of selected commercial goods by road. According to that, 16 categories of goods listed in the seventh schedule to Statutory Instrument 115 of 2020 (Customs and Excise Ports of Entry and Routes) that came into effect on 1 January 2021, will not be allowed to leave that country through Victoria Falls border by any other mode of transport other than rail. It was alleged that a lot of goods were smuggled by road while goods carried by rail undergo thorough check at departure and in transit unlike those by road. The notice advised all clearing agents and exporters wishing to export goods listed in the seventh schedule to Statutory Instrument 115 of 2020 that they should effect the exportation of their goods through the customs ports and aerodromes set out in the eighth schedule to the attached Statutory Instrument(SI) 115 of 2020. The goods listed in the SI include edible oils, bulk fuels, oils, and other hydrocarbon oils, tobacco and tobacco products, motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beverages among others.
