LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
ZAMBIA Revenue Authority ZRA has advised members of the public importing motor vehicles not to send money for taxes to any agent to avoid being swindled or over charged.
ZRA corporate communications manager, Topsy Sikalinda said in an interview that as an authority they were receiving a lot of complaints from the public that the money they were sending to their agents to clear vehicles was not being remitted to the authority.
Mr Sikalinda advised vehicles importers not to send money t to the agent but pay directly to ZRA at any bank countrywide to avoid confusion between them and the car agents.
“As ZRA, we have observed that many people importing motor vehicles are swindled by their clearing agents. Our advice to them is that it is important when someone is importing a motor vehicle that they decide to appoint an agent they should never send money for taxes to their agents.
“To avoid that you can now pay taxes from any bank countrywide in terms of taxes so ensure that the clearing agents only send you the reference number for the transaction. You can do what is called the walking facility,” he said.
Mr Sikalinda further said people buying cars from someone if not unregistered they should ensure that the taxes were correctly paid by visiting the nearest ZRA offices to check and verify that all was well before paying for the vehicles. He said in most cases what happened was that vehicles looked very cheap and tempting to buy when in the actual sense, they were smuggled in Zambia and they did not pay any tax to the public.
