Zambia and Tanzania to strengthen anti-smuggling efforts

Zambia Revenue Authority Commissioner General, Kingsley Chanda has described his visit to Tanzania as a turning point in the way Zambia and Tanzania will conduct Customs business from now on.

Speaking at the end of his four day working Visit to Dar es Salam, the Chief Taxman says enough ground work has been laid down which will see the two Tax Authorities sharing vital information, aimed at curbing transit fraud and smothering traffic flow between the two neighbouring countries.

“In this era of technology, we cannot allow smugglers and fraudsters to continue denying our two countries the Revenue that our people need so much. Very soon we shall sign a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U) which will allow us to know what each truck destined to Zambia is loading at the Port of Dar, in real time .This information will help us seal the leakage of revenue caused by deliberate miss classification of goods,” Mr. Chanda assured.

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Customs, Mr. Sydney Chibbabbuka, has called for closer ties between the Authority and the Transporters of Tanzania. Speaking when he met Officials from Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA), Mr. Chibbabbuka said the two organisations could not afford to work in silos and expect enhanced trade between Tanzania and Zambia.

“We are all pushing in the same direction therefore, we need to meet regularly and iron out any bottlenecks that could be hindering trade between our two great countries. On our part as ZRA, you can rest assured that we shall do our best to lessen time spent by your trucks at our borders,” Mr. Chibbabbuka guaranteed.