Reports indicate that Zimbabwe-bound truckers are stuck the South African side of the Beitbridge Border Post as importers were caught by surprise by the government’s decision to hike duty threefold.
A shipping agent who spoke to Newsday on Sunday had this to say:
Many drivers have been on the South African side since Friday (last week) when duties were adjusted. Importers are running around to raise duties required now.
We have not been receiving many documents and some are contemplating returning the goods to manufacturers and study the market.
On Friday last week the government, through the gazetting of Statutory Instrument 32 of 2019, raised customs and excise duties threefold.
This follows the government’s recent decision to introduce a new currency, the real-time gross settlement dollar (ZWR) whose value is roughly a third of that of the United States dollar.