R500m bill faces industry, writes Alan Peat
THE SA trucking industry could face a bill for as much as R500-million if it wants to carry transit goods through Zambia, according to Herman Lemmer, chief executive of the Road Freight Association (RFA).
And a letter has been hand-delivered to the office of SA finance minister Trevor Manuel requesting that a ministerial-level dialogue take place to resolve this frightening cost.
This has all resulted from the demand by Zambian customs authorities that, from February 1, all foreign truckers transiting the country need the new, Zambian-issued customs carrier licence.
The wording in the amendment to the Zambian Customs and Excise Act, Section 43, Clause 2, reads: The Commissioner-General may license, subject to such terms and conditions as the Commissioner-General may impose, persons to be known as customs carriers who shall be permitted to carry uncustomed and or in-bond goods within or through Zambia.
The cost of applying for each licence is only R379, but the protest has arisen from the bond that is required to support the licence application.
Section 1 (a) of the document of details from Zambian customs reads: The Bond or Bank Guarantee amount should not be less than K100-million
(R210 526 at current exchange rate) per licence.
Under the new Section 4 of the C&E Act, that bond is required by April 1.
And, as an added complication, only Zambian financial institutions are acceptable as sureties.
At the RFA meeting on this contentious issue, Lemmer highlighted the fact that the licence was required for each carrier, but the cost was multiplied by the number of entry points that the carrier used in his transit trips through Zambia.
The cost could, therefore, he told FTW, be doubled, trebled, or easily quadrupled, if the carrier is a regular user of the northern routes through Zambia.
With more than 500 individual operators already looking for customs carrier licences, this could cost the SA trucking industry up to R500-m in bonds.
In justifying the call to the Minister of Finance for action on the matter, Lemmer suggested that the Zambian demand had been overlooked at senior government level - mainly because the overall cost of this new licence has only now been assessed.
And, lurking in the background of the amendment to the C&E Act, is another warning.
This section reads: The Commissioner-General may at any time require that the form or amount of such security required under this section be altered as the Commissioner-General may determine.
The RFA is pressing for immediate action.
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