Custom and Excise (General)(Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 120)

These regulations rewrite the two project rebate provisions in the Customs and Excise (General) Regulations, 2001 (S.I. 154 of 2001).

Section 140 covers goods imported temporarily for approved projects. Its subsection (1) is replaced so that, with effect from 6 April 2023, a rebate of duty may be granted on goods temporarily imported by contractors or other persons and certified by the Secretary of the responsible Ministry and the Commissioner-General to be components or materials for completing public sector investment programme projects, or projects undertaken by companies in which government is a shareholder. Goods intended for consumption in Zimbabwe are expressly excluded, and the rebate remains subject to the Minister's discretion.

Section 141 covers goods incorporated into the construction of approved projects. Its subsection (1) is replaced on the same lines: the rebate applies to components or materials certified by the Secretary of the responsible Ministry and the Commissioner-General for incorporation into approved projects, imported by contractors or other persons for completion of public sector investment programme projects or projects undertaken by companies where government is a shareholder. The new text also states expressly that the Minister grants approved project status for public sector investment programme projects.

The substantive shift in both sections is the same: the rebate is now anchored to the public sector investment programme and to government-shareholding companies, and the certification runs jointly through the responsible Ministry's Secretary and the Commissioner-General. Contractors on such projects should get that certification in place before importing, since the rebate turns on it.

The backdating to 6 April 2023 applies on the face of the text only to section 140, the temporary import rebate. The section 141 substitution carries no date of its own, so it takes effect on gazetting, 19 August 2024. Contractors relying on retrospective relief for goods already incorporated in construction should confirm the position with ZIMRA rather than assume the earlier date carries across.