New system speeds up border vehicle clearing

The automated system introduced by Government to clear foreign-registered vehicles coming into the country has helped reduce congestion and non-compliance with customs laws by visitors.

Commonly known as eTIPs (electronic Temporary Import Permits), the facility is mainly used on tourists’ vehicles and those of Zimbabweans based outside.

A large constituency of the Zimbabweans based in other countries, such as South Africa, use the facility when returning home for holidays.

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) introduced the idea in 2018 and has been able to track and acquit 95 percent of the vehicles entering the country using eTIPs.

ZIMRA’s Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Batsirai Chadzingwa, recently said that between 2018 and last year they had issued 502 815 eTIPs at Beitbridge and acquitted 477 823 motor vehicles. The other 24 992 were outstanding for several reasons.

“The eTIPs facility has proved to be effective, considering that where we used the manual TIP system between 2018 and 2023, we managed to process 39 037 motor vehicles and acquitted 32 454, leaving us with an 83 percent acquittal rate,” said Mr Chadzingwa.

He was speaking during the recent visit to the port of entry by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, led by Mr Charlton Hwende.

“The rebate of duty on tourists’ vehicles or temporary import permits are issued in terms of Section 104 of the Customs and Excise (General) Regulations (Statutory Instrument 154 of 2001),” said the Commissioner.

“Ideally, the tourists fall in the category of any person not resident in Zimbabwe, a bona fide visitor for a specified period of time, and the vehicles must be re-exported on departure or expiry of the temporary permit, whichever is earlier.”

Mr Chadzingwa said the manual permits are used where there are network challenges and at smaller border posts, where there is no connectivity.

He said the eTIPs allows the tourist to register the electronic permit before arrival in Zimbabwe online on the ecustoms.zimra.co.zw/etip/ platform.

Under the new order, travellers spend less time at the border and the customs officers are able to pick up clients with outstanding permits and also they can manage acquittals in real-time anytime of the day.

“Although we have been able to make progress, we still have some drivers arriving at borders without registering e-TIP online, and in some instances we encounter clients giving false information on the e-TIP, such as addresses and telephone numbers, thereby making follow ups difficult,” said Mr Chadzingwa.

There was still rampant abuse of the eTIPs by travellers who do not qualify or were not tourists, as defined by the relevant laws, and at times unsuspecting clients were falling prey to touts.

ZIMRA is also carrying out compliance checks to ensure there is no abuse and so far this year, the authority has seized 173 cars for violation of rebates and 325 were confiscated for other violations at the Beitbridge Border Post.

Source: https://www.herald.co.zw/new-system-speeds-up-border-vehicle-clearing/