By BRIAN HATYOKA –

• Finance Deputy Minister Christopher Mvunga (centre), ZRA Katima Mulilo Border Post station manager Collins Sichivula (left) and ZRA commissioner for customs services division Dingani Banda (right) during a tour of the border facility on Monday.  Picture by BRIAN HATYOKA

KATIMA Mulilo Border Post in Sesheke District in Western Province has failed to meet its revenue target for 2015 because of a slowdown in economic activities.
Zambia Revenue Authority ( ZRA) Katima Mulilo station manager Collins Sichivula said last year, the revenue target was K348 million, but the border post managed to collect K290 million.
Mr Sichivula said the border post recorded a shortfall of about K58 million, which represents negative 16 per cent.
In 2014, the border post collected about K279 million.
Mr Sichivula was speaking on Monday when Finance Deputy Minister Christopher Mvunga conducted a familiarisation tour of the border facilities in Sesheke District and Victoria Falls in Livingstone.
He said the border post did not perform well last year because of reduced economic activities in terms of trade volumes being transacted.
“In terms of revenue performance, we didn’t do well in 2015 and this could be attributed to a slowdown in the economy as trade volumes reduced in terms of imports.
“Even the mining imports plummeted so much and this affected our performance tremendously,” Mr Sichivula said.
He said the border post was mainly handling imported chickens, fish, and meat products mainly from European countries such as United Kingdom (UK) and sometimes from Brazil in South America.
“Fish also passes through this port from China and Namibia. Many companies’ even individuals are involved in the importation of these products, although we can’t disclose their names,” he said.
Mr Sichivula also said the importation of motor vehicles mainly from Europe had dropped substantially though the situation was likely to improve.
“The vehicle imports have dropped mainly because the exchange rate of the Zambian Kwacha to a United States dollar is quite costly for one to import.
“Most of these vehicles came a long time ago but they have  not been cleared. The problem which is there is that people are unable to pay. We used to clear about 40 vehicles in a month but now we clear about 20 or 30.  And these vehicles come from the UK and United States through this port,” Mr Sichivula said.
And Mr Mvunga said he was conducting the tour to familiarise himself with the operations at the border and to appreciate the challenges that ZRA workers were facing in an effort to seek ways of improving on revenue collection.
He said it was interesting that Zambia was importing chickens when the country had so much land to boost production in that area.
Mr Mvunga said Government policy on food was to ensure that the country should be self-sufficient in food production and export more products ideally.
“We are here to familiarise ourselves on border operations. This border handles most items that are imported from Europe. I understand that Zambians even import offals which pass through this border.
“It is good if imports are declining because the more exports you have, the more foreign exchange earnings you will have, especially on things that we can produce locally,” he said.
ZRA commissioner for customs services division Dingani Banda said measures were being put in place to curb smuggling of goods into the country.
Mr Banda said ZRA was putting in place measures to fight smuggling and that some of the measures included the putting up of regional enforcement centres.
“In this case, we are not fighting smuggling from the borders per se, but we are controlling the problem inland and one trend we are finding, is that people have resorted to using forged documents.
Mr Banda said forging was a criminal offence and ZRA would ensure that those found wanting face the law.
He advised transporters of smuggled goods to be concerned and avoid carrying goods which have not been cleared as doing so was an offence.