Zimbabwe Suspends Duty on Basic Commodities

Zimbabwe has suspended import duty on basic commodities for the next three months to cushion consumers from rising prices caused by acute product shortages, APA learned on Wednesday.

An order from the Ministry of Finance to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority said the suspension of duty on basic commodities was meant to increase the inflow of imported products and augment low local production.

The duty suspension means Zimbabweans can with effect from May 12 import cooking oil, salt, flour, bath soap, washing soap, toothpaste, petroleum jelly and rice duty-free.

Prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed in the past two weeks following the liberalization of Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange market.

The move pushed up import costs for Zimbabweans who largely rely on basic commodities brought into the country by cross-border traders who travel to South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia to buy food.

“The high levels of duty, incidental to the current inter-bank rate used in the evaluation for duty purposes, depresses imported volumes of basic commodities,” the secretary for finance, Willard Manungo, said in the order to ZIMRA commissioner-general Gersham Pasi.

The suspension of duty is expected to deflate the current price spiral and it is hoped that local production would have picked up by the time the waiver is lifted on August 11.

Local industry has operated below 30 percent since Zimbabwe plunged into an economic crisis in 2000.

Source African Press Agency

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