Mozambique: Border posts start charging ‘on-board assistance and inspection fees’

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Mozambique: Border posts start charging ‘on-board assistance and inspection fees’

1:36 CAT | 03 Aug 2020

Photo: O País

Since 1 August, all means of transportation have started paying the new ‘on-board assistance and inspection fees’ at border points across the country. In Ressano Garcia and border with South Africa, drivers were caught by surprise by the demand for fees and protested, alleging lack of advance notification.

Ministerial diploma 18/2007 of 9 February decreed that all means of transport became eligible, as of last Saturday, for new fees at the country’s border crossings. The fees, according to a letter circulated by the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Migration Service, relate to assistance and inspection on board. According to the chart, light vehicles pay 98 meticais, heavy vehicles 247 meticais and motorcycles 48 meticais. For each additional hour that they remain at the border post, an additional fee of 824 meticais is charged, regardless of the type of vehicle.

However, on the border of Ressano Garcia, the busiest in the country, the situation on Saturday was embarrassing, with motorists complaining of lack of advance information.

“I didn’t know about these fees. I left here only last week, and I was not told,” one driver complained to ‘O País’.

Another driver, from South Africa, only learned about the fees from our reporter. “Fees?”, the driver retorted when asked if he had already made the payment. “I don’t know about any fees. I only know this through you. This is a surprise to me,” he said, set aback.

Zuneid Calumia, who chairs the transport sector at the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), points out that it does not make sense for fees to be charged without carriers being either consulted or, at the very least, informed.

“No specific service is being provided on board the trucks for this fee. Everything is being done in the same way as it was in the past. It doesn’t make sense for the government to implement this measure without listening to interested parties,” he said.

Calumia also noted that the fees were being charged in adverse economic circumstances, from which companies were already seeking relief.

“We thought 2020 would be very successful, but the coronavirus came. At the moment, we’re just trying to survive, but measures like this chop you off at the ankles,” Calumia complained.

The new fees also cover ships, aircraft and railway carriers.

By Romeu Carlos

Source: O País