• Transitional period had been set until May 31

  • It has now been extended to June 30

  • Meant to cater for the completion of the processing of vehicles bought before the enactment of SI 89 of 2020

Harare – The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce have extended the transitional period for the importation of second hand vehicles that are more than ten years old to the end of June.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce in collaboration with ZIMRA had come up with a transitional administrative arrangement aimed at facilitating the clearance and processing of old vehicles bought before the enactment of Statutory Instrument 89 of 2020 that officially imposed the ban on the importation of any car older than ten years.

They set up a transitional period that was supposed to run from the 22nd of April 2021 until the 31st of May 2021.

Now, however, in a joint statement released yesterday the two bodies said they will extend the transactional period until the end of the month.

“Following the promulgation of Statutory Instrument 89 of 2021 on the importation of second-hand cars that are more than 10 years old, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, in collaboration with ZIMRA is extending the administrative transitional arrangement up to 30 June 2021. This has been done to allow the clearance and processing of outstanding vehicles purchased prior to the gazetting of SI 89 of 2021,” the statement read.

To cast a bit of clarity over the issue, the transitional period was meant for the processing and importation of all vehicles that had been bought on or before the second of April 2021. By 31 May all these should have been fully cleared and in the country but now however, there’s an extra month for car owners to complete the clearance process.

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles that have been imported into the country since the enactment of the regulations are reported to have fallen by 50 percent.

“Prior to the implementation of Statutory Instrument 89 of 2021 on April 2, we would process import documents for 60 vehicles at Beitbridge per day. That has reduced to an average of 22 cars,” ZIMRA spokesperson, Francis Chimanda told the The Chronicle.

Consequently, this will impact heavy and negatively on ZIMRA’s total revenue collections at the end of this year.

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