Removal Of Import Controls Promoting Hoarding - ZNCC

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) says the removal of import controls is promoting excessive hoarding of cheaper basic grocery items from abroad.

In its latest report, ZNCC said this is being done in anticipation that the controls might be returned later and traders intend to take advantage of importing duty-free and quota-free regimes. ZNCC said:

This hoarding for future supply will result in a long-term supply of imported goods that will continue to affect the local industry for a longer period of time and will render useless some of the tools that were spelt out to promote industrialisation in the Zimbabwe Industrialisation Development Policy.

Even when the controls are returned later, they will have no effect as the hoarded supplies will continue to be distributed and pose serious competition to local producers.

For example, when the SI 98 of 2022 expired in November 2022, some warehouses were still filled with goods that could supply the informal and formal sectors for the next three to four months…

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The move to import goods duty-free will reduce government revenue collections, at a time when the national budget has already been eroded by inflation.

Removing import controls on basic commodities might also reduce demand for local raw materials that feed into local industries.

As demand for cheaper imported finished products grows, the market for locally produced goods’ will contract, which will also reduce local production and demand for raw materials used in their production, especially in the agro-processing sector, which is a key value chain in Zimbabwe.

In May this year, the Government removed duty on 11 selected imported basic grocery items and allowed shops and other Zimbabwean businesses to keep 100 percent of the foreign currency they get from sales.

The products that will be imported duty-free include maize meal, rice, milk, flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, petroleum jelly, toothpaste, bath soap and washing powder.

The move came after shops hiked prices and some started to charge for certain products exclusively in foreign currency following a sudden fall in the value of the Zimbabwean dollar against other currencies.

More: Pindula News