Mozambique: Inflation falls to 4% in February year-on-year - INE
The southern regional director of Mozambique Customs, Amilcar Mulungo, says that the Mozambican state continues to lose a lot of money through non-compliance with customs rules.
But, without revealing figures, Mulungo says that the problem’s days “are numbered”.
“We are not here to talk about under-invoicing so I can not specify losses, but it is a fact that there are losses for the state,” Mulungo replied in answer to questions about the volume of losses due to non-compliance with import rules of origin.
The solution to the problem is the “e-Valuator”, which consists of evaluating goods according to the World Trade Organisation’s recommendations via the Single Electronic Window system.
Mulungo explained that “when there is a value dispute, the whole process is managed outside the system (of the Single Electronic Window), and this has delayed resolution”.
During this process, “the one who is harmed by the delay is the importer, who has to bear the additional costs of storage”.
In addition to facilitating and expediting the resolution of these conflicts, the inclusion of the evaluation process in the Single Window will allow “the creation of a database that can be better managed, as well as the realisation that each technician has certain ideas, which leads them to impose values that importers are obliged to accept. That is, we will have consensus values that will be managed by an electronic database”.
Defining the origin of goods in tune with the WTO
Mulungo was addressing a meeting of the Chamber of Customs Brokers of Mozambique in Maputo yesterday.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the process of customs clearance in Mozambique and, based on the experience of different stakeholders, to propose the best ways of calculating customs value and define the origin of good within the single electronic window and in line with the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Mulungo acknowledged revealed that problems relating to the declaration of value persist.
“The trend has been to declare a value below what the value of the merchandise is when it comes to an import, with the obvious goal of paying less,” said Mulungo.
Mulungo also noted also a reverse situation, “where, when importing, amounts above the value of the merchandise are declared”, in order to expatriate capital.
What is the eValuator?
In December last year, as part of the process of modernisation of the Customs of Mozambique, a new tool was added to the Customs Single Electronic Window (JUE), in order to assist in the evaluation process of imported goods.
It is a customs valuation system associated with a commodity database called eValuator.
The design and implementation of eValuator is the latest JUE innovation, and aims to assist not only in the collection of revenue but also in the improvement of international trade statistics with regard to the value of goods and their detailed commercial description.
The eValuator is also intended to facilitate trade by reducing the time currently spent in disputes related to the value of goods, by making the clearance process more flexible.
The eValuator is also intended to improve fairness, predictability and impartiality in the application of the General Rules for Determining the Value of Goods, approved by Decree 38/2002 of December 11.
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