Non-Tariff Barriers :: Complaints

Complaint

Complaint number

NTB-000-401

NTB Type

2.8. Lengthy and costly customs clearance procedures

Complaint

For certain types of commodity such as cement, maize, and sugar Mozambican Customs requires a customs escort for transit cargo out of Beira Port to the hinterland. The customs escort costs 5,000Mt for between one and five trucks in a convoy. However: customs escorts cannot be arranged ahead of time and can only be arranged on presentation of a full set of completed clearance documents to customs; customs at Beira Port does not operate at weekends meaning that cargo loaded on a Friday afternoon after 3.30pm or over the weekend and requiring an escort must wait until Monday to move. In practice customs does not always have people available to escort convoys meaning that the documents required for clearance are given to the last driver in the convoy and only when this driver reaches the border can all the trucks in the convoy be cleared out of Mozambique

Status note

At the conusltative meeting held between SADC Secretariat and Mozambique focal points on 19 September 2011, ands subsequent meeting between SADC Secretariat, Cornelder de Mozambique, on 22 September 2011in Beira, Mozambique reported that Customs escorts are properly coordinated such that companies can make arrangements for escorts taking place during weekends well in advance. Customs at Beira have arrangements for availability of customs officer at all times to facilitates escorts. However, all documnetation for weekend escorts must be processed during office hours.

Progress update note

Mozambique explained that the goods that represents a high level of fiscal risk must be accompanied by a revenue employee and the resulting expenses must paid by the declaring company. In case the transitory agent. - article 25 of the transit regulation.
ii.The expenses on the previous point are of accommodation and sustenance for the employee during the time that he will be working. According to the revenue authority, the per diem value is 1250 meticais.
iii. The allotted time for the in transit merchandise to cross national territory varies according to the distance between the entry and exit borders. i.e. from the Beira harbor to Machipanda border post and vice versa are approximately 290km’s and the in transit merchandise has 48 hours to complete the route to the exit border. From this, the per diem fees are 2500 meticais.
iv. The distance from the Beira harbor to the Zoboe border and vice versa is of approximately 752 km’s. The in transit merchandise must do the traject to the exit border post in 72 hours. It is possible that the employee returns to the departure post in the same day. From this, the per diem costs are of 3750 Mts.
v. The distance from the Beira harbor to the border posts of Calomué and Cassacatissa is of approximately 1000 km’s and the in transit merchandise must reach it in 72 hours. The assigned employee has 24 hours to return to the departure post. As such the per diem fees are of 5000 meticais.
vi. The time to pay for the fiscal accompaniment is related to the fact that the public services in Mozambique are only open in between 7:30 am to 3:30 pm from Monday to Friday. At the Revenue authority the treasury works from between 7:30 am to 2:30 pm, but the TITRA treasury works until 3:30 to allow some flexibility of the in transit merchandise tramitation.
For the reasons stated above it is not possible to make any payments on the weekends and holidays.
Relatively to the lack of employees to do the fiscal accompaniment, we have to say that in fact we are short of man power to the accompaniment of all trucks transporting international merchandise. At the Beira customs post there was found a positive solution to all parties involved. One employee accompanies in average 3 trucks, reducing the costs for the economic agent and avoiding having merchandise going thru un accompanied.

Policy or regulatory NTB

Yes

Location

Mozambique: Customs Authority (Government institution)

Reporting Country or Region

Mozambique

Country specific trade issue

Date of incident

2011-03-01

Status

Resolved

Date of resolution

2011-09-29

Product Description

Computer-assisted translation

Total value

Date reported

2011-03-01 12:13

Modified

2011-09-29 12:33

Non-Tariff Barriers

Reporting, Monitoring and Eliminating Mechanism

Complaint