ZAMBIA REVENUE AUTHORITY

Transcription

1 ZAMBIA REVENUE AUTHORITY CUSTOMS SERVICES DIVISION CHIRUNDU EXPERIENCE WITH DAY TO DAY MANAGEMENT OF A BORDER POST AND MAIN CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN FACILITATING TRADE. PRESENTED BY ARNOLD NKOMA.

2 BACKGROUND Chirundu Custom s port, located at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, is the main entry port into Zambia and a gateway to neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Mozambique through Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda through Tanzania. It is 140Kiliometers from the capital city, Lusaka. The port handles Imports, Exports and Transit goods channelled through the ports of Beira in Mozambique and Durban in South Africa to and from all over the world. The port has two terminals, which are Passenger, and Commercial Terminal. The Passenger Terminal which handles light traffic, buses and accompanied baggage operates from 06:00hours to 18:00hours every day of the year while the Commercial Terminal which handles all commercial and transit transactions operates from 08:00hours to 18:00hours daily. There are commitments by both the Zambian and Zimbabwe governments in making the border operate 24hours in the near future. During the last three to five years business at the port has almost tripled more especially during the last two years due to increased mining activities both in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, the inflow of Commercial trucks is on average 120 per day while released after clearance is about the same figure. The average monthly inflow of commercial trucks is 3,600 trucks.. In terms of revenue, the monthly collections have correspondingly grown positively. The key importers at the station comprise the mining companies existing and upcoming, Zambian Breweries, National Milling; Trade Kings and Zambia Sugar among others. The station anticipates continued business growth as the mining sector grows in the country and the border and road infrastructure are completed by the end of this year. This growth in business has not only increased the revenues at the station but also brought challenges in the stations duty execution as regards trade facilitation, turn around time for trucks to be cleared and enforcement of necessary controls and provisions of the law. Trade Facilitation is the expediting 2

3 in movement of goods, release and clearance of goods including those in transit. There are both internal and external challenges affecting trade facilitation measures at the station. The internal challenges are those government and Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) are able to solve and are divided into system and non-system challenges. In this paper, focus will be on external challenges, which require all border stakeholders to deal with. An attempt has been made to propose the possible interventions to most of the bottlenecks. 1.0 INTERNAL CHALLENGES Below are some of system challenges hindering trade facilitation at the station. 1.1 SYSTEM CHALLENGES The Transit mode on the current computer system (Asycuda ++) has transit declarations not being transmitted automatically to destination ports in some cases. Many a time, there is system failure to acquit the declarations electronically both at entry and exit (Hanging T1 s) port. This has not only caused delays in entry processing because many a time agents bonds are not re-imbursed but also introduces risks in transit goods monitoring, as records on the system do not reflect the correct picture on the ground. Moreover the system has long processing time due to its configuration. For instance, the declarations are not automatically allocated to the Examining Officers upon registration and the declaration cannot be printed upon being assessed. In conjunction with UNCTAD, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) is trying to deal with these configuration challenges in order to shorten processing time on the system. The Project is under way to centralize Asycuda and this may provide solutions to this pertinent problem 1.2 NON- SYSTEM CHALLENGES The non-system challenges obtaining at the station include 3

4 a) Inadequate human resources While several trade facilitation measures and instruments are under way at Chirundu, the agents (both government and private sector) are not moving in terms of increasing the number of members of staff due to several reasons critical of which is accommodation both in terms of office and residential. It is hoped that once the new terminals are complete and government constructs its housing units, the agents may relocate more human resources into Chirundu. b) Inadequate Equipment- ICT Information and Communication Technology equipment especially computers and printers among agents that have them have been repeatedly being crushing or breaking down probably because of the hot and dusty environment, leading to a reduction in useful equipment and sharing of computers by officers performing different functions. Some agents have no computers and depend on the computer bure au leading to queues at the bureau. Of the more than 200 customs clearing agents licensed to operate at Chirundu, only 16 are connected to the Asycuda system on the remote basis. The 16 are the only ones that can do data input while in their offices whereas more than 180 have to go to the bureau for data input. There is need for investment in Information Technology by all stakeholders. Under the Asycuda centralisation programme, proposal to have several bureau connected Asycuda is being considered as this will allow a number of Customs Agents make declarations using other bureaux. This will ultimately reduce the time required to make a declaration into Customs. c) Infrastructure The current infrastructure is inadequate both in terms of office space and parking space. The station is aware of the ongoing construction of office buildings and parking space whose pace is quite slow. The infrastructure under construction (Passenger and Commercial Terminal) may become inadequate 4

5 especially when the road from Kafue to Chirundu has been completed. We may experience an increase in traffic levels because of the good road and the shorter distance from Chirundu to Lusaka. d) Attitude and general resolve to deliver. Some of the delays could squarely lie on our own personnel s attitude towards work, motivation, teamwork as well as having a common vision to serve our clients as efficiently as is reasonably possible despite the harsh environment in which we operate. Appreciating that in business cost reduction is critical for survival, we in Customs especially are moving from Customs for Customs to Customs for Business. However, even Customs had to do their best if other government wings do not get motivated to do so, trade facilitation will always be hampered. e) Multiplicity of Government Agencies There are eleven different government agencies and security wings at the border that equally have some formality to fulfil before trucks are released from the border. For example, we have Road Transport and Safety Agency, Environmental Council of Zambia, Zambia Bureau of Standards, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Siavonga District Council (Truck Levy) Drug Enforcement Commission, Immigration, Interpol, Fisheries, Zambia Wildlife Authority etc The truck driver/agent is required to report to and complete formalities with these agents who are dotted around the border. This ultimately leads to delays before and after customs has processed the declarations. For example, before a declaration of plant or animal product is submitted, there is a requirement for respective permits and therefore the declaration is not submitted until the permits have been obtained from relevant authorities. Mean while, the truck is still at the border. Even after submission of declarations, there is need for clearance of especially chemicals by ECZ before Customs can finalise the clearance process. In circumstances where clearance has been done especially with regard to abnormal load cargo especially machinery and plant 5

6 equipment, there is need to obtain the Abnormal Load Permit from Lusaka. It takes a good number of days up to four to five days before this permit is approved while the load stands at the border The ideal situation is to have the border officers vested with sufficient authority to be issuing permits and make certain operation decision without waiting for Lusaka s guidance. The implementation of one stop border concept and the new offices once in place will help reduce on time wastage, as the border agencies shall be centralised. Delegated authority or integrated border management which government is considering is a best way to reduce the time spent on clearance of the trucks and ensure effective trade facilitation. 2.0 EXTERNAL CHALLENGES a) Clearing agents bureaucratic systems /procedures. A number of Customs Clearing Agents need to obtain authority from their head offices in Lusaka before they can submit their declarations into customs for processing. In some cases, agents at chirundu must fax a draft copy of the declaration to Lusaka for approval before the entry can be lodged with customs. Clearing agents must streamline their operational procedures with a view to streamline the clearance process and reduce delays they are responsible for but over which customs is blamed. One way could be for the agents to employ competent staff and to raise authority levels where the local managers should handle most of these cases where we have declarations being framed in Lusaka. b) Delayed settlement of assessments by agents and / or importers. Some clearing agents and or importers delay in settlement of their assessments. The station has no option but to place all such agents on embargo in order to enforce compliance in this area. This means that during such times, these agents will not 6

7 transact but will be hesitant to pass over business to other agents causing the trucks to be marooned at the border. This tendency is counter productive to trade facilitation and it leads to unnecessary costs as the transporter tend to charge demurrages. Agents must settle outstanding assessments in time and should not inconvenience the trade. c) Insufficient bond amounts Despite the asycuda inefficiencies, most Customs Clearing Agents have found themselves with inadequate customs bonds due to the high value mining machinery, which they have to move in bond besides other importations by motor vehicle industry and other companies. As such most Agents are running out of bonds on daily basis and hence trucks cannot move as expected. Besides, the agent holds on to the declarations until they have sufficient bond amount, as they cannot give business to others with the bond for fear of losing that business permanently. d) Declaration time for entries The time between entry into the country of the truck and submission of declaration into Customs is not controlled due to several factors one of which is lack of permanent infrastructure of the agents and the low staffing levels. Most of the clearing agents companies do not have offices at Chirundu but have officers and the majority have only one officer. In the event that such an agent representative is out of Chirundu, the driver get stranded with papers until he/she comes back that is when the declaration is lodged into Customs. Agents need to review their establishments at Chirundu. Moreover, the time an assessment is issued up to the time when payment is effected is not controlled as it depends on the availability of funds for taxes. Therefore, the truck shall stay even for two days from the time the assessment was issued till when payment is effected e) Group Policy 7

8 Certain big transporters have a group policy of procuring road toll fees, insurance and movement. This means if the trucks are moving in a convoy of twenty and one of them is not cleared may be due to consolidation, even if nineteen have been cleared they will not go until the last one is cleared as the transporter has to procure toll fee at once for the whole convoy. In some instance, the clearing agents in order to reduce the costs, issue only one cheque for a number of declarations. For instance, some agents issue one cheque for ten declarations and this means that as long as they do not have the prescribe number, the payment will not be issued and the affected trucks remain at the border. f) Consolidated cargo In many cases, trucks carry consolidated cargo sometimes belonging to eleven importers each with own agent. Therefore the driver/transporter has to distribute to all involved agents the papers for the cargo on the truck and he cannot move out of the Customs control until all the respective agents have cleared their respective consignments on the truck. As such, even if ten out of eleven consignments have been cleared, the truck will not be allowed to proceed until the last consignment has been cleared. g) Competence of clearing staff. The clearing industry has no formal training programme in Zambia, which is able to copy with the currents changes in the region and the whole world in general. Therefore, most clearing agents have no reference materials and those who have, the materials are outdated and this leads to unnecessary queries as Customs is on the different level as regards changes. Suffice to state that while Customs has been modernising its processes, most of the agents have remained behind. h) Insufficient knowledge of the Trade Regulation Despite the implementation of various trade facilitation instruments, both Customs Administrations and the trade still have challenges in applying trade rules especially the Rules of 8

9 Origin. Questions usually are asked why for instance we do not confer origin status of certain goods traded under the SADC Protocol on Trade. This is because the SADC Rules are tariff based and have to be negotiated for. Even the administration of the Certificates of Origin is posing serious challenges to trade facilitation as in some cases one certificate is issued for the total order whose consignments shall come through various borders. Time is wasted in having the issuing administration address such anomalies while the funds for the client is held as a monetary deposit pending normalisation of the process. 3.0 CONCLUSION It should be noted that the complex scenario obtaining at Chirundu border requires concerted efforts by all the stakeholders in order to develop an integrated approach that will reduce clearance time and increase truck time around time. Sensitisation of all stakeholders on the need to facilitate trade is fundamental if we are to reduce the costs of doing business in the region. One need to appreciate the efforts by the government of the Republic of Zambia in trying to address constraints hindering trade facilitation through the Zambia Threshold project and other regional projects under both COMESA and SADC Trade Facilitation should be every one s business if the costs of doing business have to be reduced and Zambia and the region at large has to become competitive. 9