Value Added Tax (Unbeneficiated Hides Export) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 3)
Twelve abattoirs and tanners get renewed export quotas for unbeneficiated hides — from 15 000 hides for Afro Hides up to 50 000 for Koala Park — and the scheme now runs only two years from publication, for excess stockpile alone.
Zimbabwe taxes the export of unbeneficiated (raw, untanned) hides through the Value Added Tax Act. These regulations replace the list of merchants who may export under the scheme and put a fresh time limit on it.
The schedule of registered merchants is deleted and substituted with twelve companies and their quotas: Meggertop Enterprises (40 000 hides / 800 000 kg), Global Tanners (40 000 / 800 000), Bellevue Abattoirs (25 000 / 500 000), Bulawayo Abattoir (45 000 / 900 000), Surrey Abattoir (20 000 / 400 000), MC Meats (48 000 / 960 000), Koala Park Abattoir (50 000 / 1 000 000), ER York (30 000 / 600 000), Outback Safaris (20 000 / 400 000), Afro Hides & Skin Z (15 000 / 300 000), Zimnyama Abattoirs (24 000 / 480 000) and Paperhole Abattoirs (24 000 / 480 000). Each quota works out at 20 kg per hide.
Section 3(3) of the 2018 principal regulations (S.I. 274 of 2018) is repealed and replaced so that the regulations apply only to excess stockpile, and only for two years from the date of publication of the regulations. That is the sentence exporters need to read carefully, because it says "these regulations" without spelling out whether the clock runs from the 2018 publication or from this 2024 amendment — a company relying on the window should confirm the position with ZIMRA rather than assume.
Companies not on the list have no quota under this scheme. Companies on it should check that their name and quota are recorded correctly, since the schedule as published is the operative list.
What changed
- The schedule of registered hide-export merchants is replaced with a new list of twelve companies
- Quotas range from 15 000 hides (300 000 kg) to 50 000 hides (1 000 000 kg) per merchant
- The scheme is confined to excess stockpile only
- The scheme is limited to two years from the date of publication of the regulations
Who this affects
- abattoirs and hide exporters named in the schedule
- tanneries buying raw hides locally
- companies previously registered as merchants but dropped from the new list
- ZIMRA officers administering hide export quotas
- leather manufacturers competing for local hide supply
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. Always read the full instrument.