When these quilting kits come into Zimbabwe, what they declare at the border is $0.40. A local company which is manufacturing blankets cannot compete with a company that is importing a quilting kit for $0.40 and sell a blanket because they can even sell it for $3 and still make a profit. Actually, this material here, when it is being imported into Zimbabwe must declare $2.93 per metre at the border but this whole set is declaring $0.40 at the border. That is the level of prejudice to this Government.
This Chinese Company would not able to do this if they are not protected by senior people in Government. The document that I have here Madam Speaker will tell you what has been imported into this country. The Chinese Company I am talking about here is called Yufan Import and Export Trade Company. It does not have a bank account. I wonder how they are then able to pay for these things in China if they do not go through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe because they must essentially go through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. They must submit an application to the RBZ and say we need so much to be able to import these items into the country but I do not know how they do it because they do not go through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
HON DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Holder. Can we have order in the House? – [AN HON. MEMBER: Akadhakwa.] –
HON. HOLDER: I am sorry, I was speaking a little bit louder but I was just trying to highlight that what Hon. Maridadi is saying has something to do with the Bill which is on Order Number 1 which they shot down. The Hon. Member who said I am drunk, did he buy me beer?
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! It is only that I heard your voice and you are not supposed to speak when another Hon. Member is debating.
HON. MARIDADI: They do not have a bank account and what it means is that they do not pay corporate tax. When I went to buy these items, they have three different sets of tariffs. They do not allow to swipe. If you are buying using bond notes, this dish here costs $16. If you are using US dollars you pay about $12. They will tell you that if you are buying more than one, they do not want bond notes, they want US dollars and I have documentary evidence to that.
Madam Speaker, if you look at the extent of prejudice – I was calculating here – a 40 foot container paid ZIMRA $4 000 when in actual fact it should have paid $49 970. I am talking of one container. This item that I have here which is called a Bill of Entry talks about twenty 40 foot containers that have come into Zimbabwe and they have only paid about $80 when in actual fact if you calculate $49 000 by 20, it is about a million. With this kind of attitude, we are not able to go anywhere. But let me bring it home.
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