Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) last week called for wider involvement of security forces in the fight against fuel smuggling syndicates.
This comes as the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has expressed concern about the safety of vehicles in the country as smuggled fuel is not being subjected to Consignment Based Conformity Assessment checks, which are conducted to eliminate contaminated products.
Responding to questions from the Zimbabwe Independent, Francis Chimanda, head of corporate affairs at ZIMRA said they investigating reports of increased fuel smuggling. He said:
Information is still being collated and will be processed to determine the legality of fuel importations by the companies.
ZIMRA has a total volume of fuel imported for domestic use and transit. Fuel abuse will be determined only after the data-matching exercise is complete.
Any revenue due to the State will be recovered and where prosecutions are required, these will also be pursued.
The country has porous borders that require collaborative effort from all border stakeholders including the security forces and other law enforcement agencies.
Some fuel smugglers are allegedly declaring petroleum as shipments in transit to avoid paying requisite duties but the fuel has ended up being sold in the Zimbabwean market.
Zimbabwe has recorded a sharp rise in the number of fuel service stations in the last few years.
In the past four years, ZERA has licensed over 3 300 retailers, according to official data.
Of these, 910 operators entered the market last year alone, a marked increase from 733 in 2020, 848 in 2021 and 881 in 2022.
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