75 cars held in RBZ probe
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From: as on 23 May 2010 12:52 75 cars held in RBZ probe http://www.thestandard.co.zw/ Saturday, 22 May 2010 20:23 THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has stopped a Harare car dealer from disposing of 75 cars as part of investigations into allegations that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe did not pay duty for imported cars. Imperial Motors has been a regular supplier of cars to State House, RBZ, the President's Office, the army, the police, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and other government departments. The RBZ bought numerous cars as part of the central bank's quasi-fiscal activities, which have since been stopped by the inclusive government. Some of the unmarked vehicles were allegedly used in Zanu PF's terror campaign, which MDC-T says left about 200 of its supporters dead and displaced thousands others. According to documents seen by The Standard, Zimra is now investigating all the cars that were imported by RBZ through Imperial Motors, which also trades as AJ Motorcentre in Harare. In a letter written to RBZ Governor Gideon Gono (pictured) on Thursday last week Imperial Motors chief executive officer, Ajit Patel said they had had several visits by Zimra officials who had placed an embargo on 75 vehicles imported by Imperial Motors. "The ZIMRA officials have not given any reason as to why they have placed an embargo on our vehicles but much of their research and audit is focused on vehicles sold to the RBZ" read the letter. "We have had many contracts with RBZ and these contracts are based on the nature that Imperial Motors are only facilitating the RBZ purchases of vehicles by carrying out the logistics and documentation for the vehicles," Patel said Zimra officials had also impounded their files and records. "I have given all records as to my understanding that every transaction with the RBZ is and was above board," he said. "I suggest therefore Honourable Governor that Zimra approaches the RBZ directly for any queries in regards to these imports as all documentation has been handed over to your transport team. "This will enable us to concentrate on our core business and be treated with respect and not as mere criminals as our company has acted in good faith to support our government." RBZ governor Gideon Gono was not available for comment yesterday but a senior official who requested anonymity confirmed the raids by Zimra. "I can confirm we did receive reports of such raids but we are yet to receive any formal communication from Zimra itself," he said. "We stand ready to find out what really it is Zimra is looking for as it would be unfortunate for many hours to be spending in unwilled witch-hunts, which are non- productive. "It is time that we focus more on finding solutions to current challenges than seeking to find every possible excuse to incriminate one another where there are absolutely no issues at all." But Robson Mhandu, the Zimra spokesperson Robson Mhandu dismissed allegations that the move was a witch-hunt targeting the RBZ governor. "Those are just allegations and lies, Zimra only deals with clients who import cars and check if they are meeting all the requirements and have paid what is due to the Zimbabwean government," he said. "We don't even check who the person is, if someone is importing things he should pay regardless of how big the person is." RBZ property worth millions of dollars has been auctioned by creditors over the past months after the central bank failed to service overdue debts. BY SANDRA MANDIZVIDZA
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