Customs and Excise (Centre Pivot Manufacturers’) (Suspension) Regulations, 2025

Customs duty is suspended on the materials used to build centre-pivot irrigation systems: steel pipe, sheet and bar, pumps and pump parts, bearings, electric motors, circuit breakers and motor control panels, nozzles, tyres and inner tubes, flow and pressure meters, and pivot lights. The regulations come into effect on 1 January 2026.

The Third Schedule names a single approved manufacturer — Maka Resources (Private) Limited. Only a manufacturer on that list may apply to register, so the facility is in practice a single-company suspension.

To use it the manufacturer must register with ZIMRA, hold a valid tax clearance certificate, submit to an inspection of premises and machinery, erect secure stores that can be locked with Customs locks, and enter into a bond in an amount the Commissioner fixes. The registration fee is halved for approvals granted after 30 June, and renewal falls due each year by 31 January.

Goods must be entered at the port of entry nearest the factory, accompanied by a signed declaration that they will be used solely to manufacture centre pivots. A stock-book must be kept and is open to inspection at any time; if it is not kept, the goods are deemed diverted and the duty becomes payable. Disposal of suspended goods needs the Commissioner's written authority.

An annual report to the Minister — on employment, capacity utilisation, new investment, output growth and research and development — is a condition of the facility, due within 30 days of each 12-month period. Note that the reporting clause dates the first period from 1 January 2020, which is plainly carried over from the earlier rebate regulations and does not sit with the 2026 commencement.