OVER 33000 vehicles have been discovered not to have matching records of customs clearance between the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA).
ZRA acting corporate communications manager Oliver Nzala said the development comes after ZRA carried out an exercise to verify if motor vehicles registered at RTSA from 1st January 2015 to 31st October 2021 are also registered on the ZRA AsycudaWorld and paid taxes.
Mr Nzala said the exercise established that about 33,045 registered motor vehicles at RTSA do not have matching records of customs clearance at ZRA.
He said this may be due to wrongly captured details such as the chassis number or simply there was no clearance with Customs. Therefore, these vehicles are of interest to the ZRA.
“ZRA is therefore cordially inviting all those who imported motor vehicles between 1st January 2015 and 31st October, 2021 to visit the ZRA website: www.zra.org.zm to check if their vehicle is of interest to the Authority.
Once on the website, they can check for Motor Vehicle Search, type in the chassis number as entered in the RTSA registration book and search. If the vehicle details appear, it means the vehicle is of interest to ZRA,” he said.
Mr Nzala said if the taxpayer is sure that customs clearance was done, they scan and e-mail the customs clearance certificate (CCC), RTSA registration book and any other documentation of the vehicle to motorvehicle@zra.org.zm for verification with ZRA.
He said ZRA will analyse the records and give feedback to the taxpayer.
“If the ZRA accepts the submitted proof of Customs clearance, then the records will be updated and the vehicle will be removed from the list. If the taxpayer has no proof of Customs clearance, then the vehicle is of interest to the Authority. Please visit the nearest ZRA Port or Border to normalize the process and pay the taxes,” he said.
Mr Nzala said members of the public are given up to 31st August 2022 to ensure that Customs clearance is done with the ZRA.
He said the authority will not charge penalties and interest for voluntary compliance.
Mr Nzala however said after the period, the authority will engage in enforcement activities to recover unpaid taxes which may result in interest and penalties being charged in addition to taxes or even forfeiture of the vehicle to the State.
(Mwebantu)