Zimra commissioner-general Gershon Pasi yesterday told Parliament that the country is losing a lot of money through cash exports by travellers who are allowed a daily limit of $10 000.
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Pasi said Zimra had already raised the issue with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to find ways of curbing movements of money outside the country.
He said most people were importing goods of no economic value.
Pasi appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs led by Zanu PF Chipinge West MP Enock Porusingazi to speak on efficiency at border posts as well as promotion of regional integration and trade.
“There has been an influx of imports and for as long as our economy is not performing people will continue to import,” he said.
“But we will be discussing the issue with the new RBZ governor because we are concerned about exports of cash since the current regulations allow a person to take $10 000 cash per trip and there is no limit as to the number of trips one can take.”
Pasi said Zimra’s proposal was that there should be a monthly cap on the amount of money people are allowed to export.
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He said in the months of January to March, Zimra managed to exceed its quarterly revenue collection targets by 2%. Pasi admitted there were incidences of smuggling at borders, but said Zimra had now adopted a system whereby they rotated staff at border posts.
“It is said there are leakages of $7 billion worth of revenue from imports at ports of entry but $4,1 billion worth of those are government imports which do not pay duty, while others are imports from bilateral agreements like Comesa.
“Last year we were at 29% of gross domestic product in revenue collection and were amongst the highest in the world,” he said.
Pasi said Zimra continued to automate using Ascuda World as it reduced interface between the clearing agent and clients.
He said the authority introduced advance passenger manifest and was planning to use e-payment systems with stringent systems for banks to qualify.
