Online Reporter
SMUGGLING is a major menace in Zimbabwe, hammering the collection of customs and excise duties which are needed for national development, having major economic effects in curbing the viability and growth of local industries and fuelling the flood of fake and sometimes toxic goods in local markets.
An inter-agency task force, under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, was set up by Cabinet earlier this year, and after the expected detailed work in setting up the teams, is now active. We hope smugglers and fakers have been put on notice.
In the National Budget presented last month, smuggling was identified as serious, and rife across a series of products and effective legal measures were put in place to create the presumption of smuggling for these products unless the clearance documents were available right down the value chain.
Those legal measures made anti-smuggling operations much easier.
Last week, 24-hour roadblocks went up to check on the sort of vehicles where there was a reasonable probability, based on past experience and gathered intelligence, that they were carrying smuggled goods, either on their own account or hired by smugglers or simply being buses with passengers carrying bags of smuggled goods, or quite commonly ones where bus crews stashed the smuggled goods hidden among the luggage.
At the same time teams have been moving into the retail sector to examine stock and demand those documents that are now required from importers, the transporters moving the goods, the formal and informal wholesalers, and the shops themselves.
At the same time the teams are cleaning up the flood of fake products, some imported, some locally produced, that cheat consumers and in some cases poison them.
The close cooperation between the Industry and Commerce Ministry, Zimra, the police, the Consumer Protection Authority and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit means that someone in every team and at every roadblock has the legal authority to inspect, to demand documentation and knows what the real documents look like, and usually has the authority to impound the goods pending the outcome of any legal trials.
Such multi-agency teams combine a lot of expertise which makes it difficult for smugglers to get away with bluster and fake documents.
For example, a police officer might well not be an expert in customs paperwork. A Zimra officer knows what the genuine documents look like, and can also almost instantly check to see if someone is trying to use a genuine document issued for another import.
But the Zimra officer needs the cop to stop the truck and effect an arrest while the goods and the truck are impounded.
When it comes to raiding shops, the Financial Intelligence Unit can confirm that zero local currency is being accepted, and zero banking being done.
The Consumer Protection Authority has the intelligence gathered and the authority to check everything. The Industry and Commerce officer can confirm promptly that a product is fake. The customs officer can again check the documentation, especially for the Budget listed products that must have genuine documents at every step. And the cop can once again keep everyone nice and calm and effect arrests.
A well-oiled team can close every loophole and most importantly between them they will know precisely what to look for. Having that expertise on tap as it were is crucial.
Dozens of vehicles caught at road blocks were impounded last week, including buses.
The seizures are often temporary, since in some cases it is possible to release at least some vehicles and some of the impounded goods on payments of fines, taxes and penalties, although in the case of smuggled goods there are procedures for permanent seizure and auctioning of the goods as well as fines and penalties.
For the special list of the most common smuggled goods, those along the value chain can even have their premises locked up and closed while they sort out the penalties, or even see the goods taken away by the authorities.
Among the fake goods is a flood of fake alcoholic drinks where multiple offences are committed.
These start off with ethanol, although there are reports that poisonous methanol is included, with food colouring or other pigments added along with sugar and other flavourings to make some consumers with little experience accept the fake.
The fakers are evading taxes, breaching a whole lot of product protection laws, and breaching regulations concerning dangerous and harmful substances.
Quite often the fake product, or at least some of the ingredients, are smuggled, so creating another offence. The raids on small shops, illegal bottle stores and some legal ones, nightclubs and even street dealers at least get the fakes impounded and makes those willing to sell them think very carefully.
Again teams require people who can distinguish fake from genuine, and some of the fakes are well packaged, or even use resealed used bottles, and some of the documentation will pass muster unless a pro is doing the checking. So a team needs to be multi-skilled.
The experience of these inter-agency teams will also help to align laws, and especially penalties under different laws. A little over 50 years ago, for example, the colonial authorities switched prosecutions for kachasu.
They had been analysing the products and proving they were dangerous and poisonous. They then found producing alcohol without a tax-authority licence and selling alcohol without paying duty attracted far more serious penalties. Some of the legal gaps have been filled since then, but others, considering the innovation in criminal circles, must have arisen.
Those being caught in the multiple blitzes now in progress cannot complain.
They were warned that the authorities were stepping up enforcement, and stepping it up in ways that made detection almost certain. The Second Republic keeps its promises, including those to clamp down on all types of crime, and with the emphasis on effective action rather than talk is combating criminal innovation with the innovation in law enforcement.
