Initially, when they were importing these blankets, they used what is called JJ Transport. JJ Transport which has trackers. ZIMRA can actually track from the time that it leaves Forbes Border post to the time that it gets to Harare. When I went to do my investigation, I was wearing casual clothes, a cap and some dark glasses so that I could not be identified. When they discovered that somebody was investigating, they then changed the transport company and they are now using a Mozambique transport company which does not have tracker and so you cannot track it.
I then phoned ZIMRA and I told them to track a particular truck that had declared US$4 700 at the border. We tracked it and we caught up with it in Marondera. When they opened the forty foot container, they discovered readymade blanket with a value of US$70 000. It had only paid US$4 500 at the border. Mr. Speaker, with this kind of thing, the Hon. Minister will not be able to raise revenue. Mr. Speaker, this Chinese company, I have invoices here of what they declare at the border and how much they make which I will favour the Minister with. In the past one year, the containers that I managed to track were 27. One container that declared the most amount was $6 700 and I have documentary evidence to that effect, yet it should have declared a minimum of $70 thousand. Minister Chinamasa has been prejudiced of over $25 million by this Qingshan Company in the past one year alone.
That company, Mr. Speaker, I am still doing my investigations to check whether it is registered in Zimbabwe, how it is operating and everything. Mr. Speaker, compounding this problem of not paying duty, Qingshan employs people who do not contribute PAYE. They are paid cash for their salaries and there are no records. So, it means the company is prejudicing Government in corporate tax, Pay as You Earn and excise duty at the border. With this kind of attitude in this country Mr. Speaker, we are exporting jobs to China because these blankets are ready-made in China. Here is a good blanket which is made here in Zimbabwe of Waverly and it is a better blanket than imported from China. This company is struggling to pay salaries because they comply with the country’s corporate tax laws, they comply with the country’s labour laws and they comply with everything but what we are doing Mr. Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – as Ministers are killing it. There is nobody Mr. Speaker, who is killing this country more than ourselves.
I then understand Hon. Misihairabwi when she says, Members of this side of the House would want to have an audience with the President. The reason is that if I have an audience with His Excellency, I will give him a true picture of what is happening on the ground because I do not have a Ministry to lose. Mr. Speaker, President Mugabe is an individual, he cannot know about the potholes in Mabvuku, he cannot know what is happening at the border, he cannot know what is happening at the filling station in Samora Machel Avenue. This is why the President appoints Ministers because those are the people who are supposed to do the work on his behalf. When he appoints those people to do work on his behalf, they must work and give the President a true picture.
Mr. Speaker, if the President were to come here and sit in that Chair and ask Members of Parliament to tell him the truth, he will be shocked beyond measure because of some of the things that we will tell him that he does not know are happening. Mr. Speaker, there are people that have almost captured His Excellency. They have put him in a corner and they show him what they want him to see and they tell him what they want him to hear. At the end of the day, the person who takes the blame is not the Minister, It is the President because the buck stops with him.
Continued next page
(933 VIEWS)
0 Comments