Zimbabwe: Study Says Red Tape Driving Import Costs Up

Financial Gazette (Harare)
IMPORT procedures in Zimbabwe consume much more time and are much more costly than what the country’s exporters incur to fulfill the same procedures in other countries, new trade statistics have revealed.
A document entitled ‘Trading Across Borders in Zimbabwe’ published by the World Bank, indicates that while the country has suffered massive shortages of locally manufactured goods including food, government has not reviewed its policies to make it easy for importers who are augmenting local supplies.
This, the document said, has discouraged the importation of goods by making prices of imported goods in Zimbabwe more expensive compared to the region.
According to the document an importer pays at least US$4,000 in document preparation, customs clearance and technical control, ports and terminal handling and inland transportation to bring into the country a standard cargo.
This procedure takes about 73 days when in other countries only half this period is required to land the goods.
Of the 73 days, 42 days are committed towards the preparation of the documents.
The statistics indicate it costs about US$2,678, spread over a period of 53 days, to complete export procedures in Zimbabwe with the preparation of documents again taking up the bulk of the time at 28 days.
Economist, John Robertson said the figures exposed government’s desperation to generate revenue by punishing imports.
The cash-strapped government now requires individuals and companies to pay duty on a wide range of imports in foreign currency.
This is largely because exports have been drying up because of the harsh operating environment resulting in the government targeting imports as the only lucrative source of revenue.