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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has engaged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) seeking extension of the amnesty period on companies that have failed to regularise outstanding bills of entry (imports) by end of December 2014.

The central bank last month warned that non-compliant firms would be prosecuted after several of them failed to comply with the 90-day amnesty, which took effect from September 1, 2014.

The amnesty was a follow-up to the bank’s monetary policy requirements that foreign exchange companies should regulate all anomalies with the exchange control.

CZI president Charles Msipa said he met RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya last Wednesday to present industry concerns regarding the implementation of the directive.

“Following the expiry of the central bank amnesty to regularise outstanding bills of entry (imports) on December 31, 2014 and the implementation of a directive to “flag” firms with outstanding bills of entry and to levy a penalty on all their payments to foreign suppliers/creditors effective January 2015-and the receipt of numerous complaints from CZI member companies on the administration of the directive, I met with the central bank governor on Wednesday January 28 to make representations on behalf of the affected companies.

“I’ve since made a written submission to the governor requesting him to extend the amnesty and suspend the system of penalties on payments by “flagged firms” to foreign suppliers while firms regularise their position on outstanding bills of entry.”

According to the RBZ, outstanding bills of entry amounted to $5.8 billion for advance import payments for the period January 2009 to June 2014.

Msipa said he hoped Dr Mangudya would consider their submission and give industry a favourable and timely response to their request.

He urged member companies to review their administrative systems of compliance with exchange control regulations on imports and exports, including their communication routines with their banks and the central bank on such matters.

Msipa said all companies should ensure they complied with the regulations.

Last year, RBZ governor John Mangudya said non-compliant firms would face prosecution this year.

“Of course, we’ll have to take it up with authorities if we’ve cases of non-compliance, however, we don’t expect to go to this level,” he said in his maiden monetary policy statement.

“After the expiry of this temporary reprieve period, the Reserve Bank shall introduce an importers’ flagging criterion with high administrative penalties similar to those currently being applied on exporters with overdue export receipts,” he said.

“Exchange Control shall issue the applicable flagging framework for importers to be effected on delinquent importers with effect from December 1, 2014.”

Among the measures introduced by the central bank are steps towards plugging financial leakages, which have plagued the shaky Zimbabwean economy.

In granting the amnesty, RBZ said the move was meant to ensure the resolution and closure to all recurring and outstanding foreign exchange related compliance issues to market participants that are committed to regularise all anomalies.

The framework has two categories of amnesty, absolute and conditional.

Dr Mangudya has said the Reserve Bank was concerned that exchange control audits conducted have shown that a significant amount of import payments did not match the acquitted bills of entry.

“This implies that some importers are making false payments, which have no corresponding value of imports coming into the country,” Mangudya said.

He said RBZ was worried with the development as it demonstrated possible cases of illegal externalisation of foreign currency by some importers and the general lack of discipline in the economy.

Thus, the amnesty was a measure to curb externalisation and ensure that the country received true and fair value from its import payments. The 90-day conditional amnesty allowed importers to acquit their bills of entry with authorised dealers for advance payments for all imported goods.

“In instances where there were no imports being sourced, the funds externalised should be repatriated back to Zimbabwe during this amnesty period,” Dr Mangudya said.