BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – It is important for people importing products into Eswatini to declare all the products to boost the country’s SACU receipts.
This was said by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg today (Tuesday, October 22, 2024) during this week’s edition of #FinanceInFocus. Rijkenberg said by declaring the imports into Eswatini, members of the public would be helping the country making as much money as it could from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
Rijkenberg said if Eswatini made more money from SACU, that meant more services would be delivered to people in Eswatini. This would improve the lives of people living in Eswatini, according to the minister. Rijkenberg further mentioned that he understood how easy it was for people to simply conceal their products when importing from other countries, including other SACU member countries.
However, he stated that concealing these products hindered development for the country and Emaswati could feel the pinch of such an action in the long run. To enhance compliance from those who import products into the country, Rijkenberg said Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) worked on improving customer service so that it could be easy to declare products.
The minister mentioned that SACU was one of the most important organisations in the country, as it helped Eswatini generate revenue. He pointed out that SACU revenue was shared according to how much a SACU member country was able to import products from any of the member countries. The more a SACU member country imports goods from other SACU member countries, the higher the SACU share that country will have.
Rijkenberg explained that products imported into countries had to be paid for in many countries because of the fact that they were imported. This was done to promote industries within those countries by enhancing production within those countries. He said the charges preferred on those products were known as customs duties. He said there were excise duties that were also levied upon certain products produced within countries.
In the case of SACU, money made from customs and excise duties were taken to a certain account known as the Common Revenue Pool (CRP). The CRP, according to Rijkenberg, was around E160 billion. The money from that account was shared among the SACU member states, according to the percentage contributed by each country into the pool.
According to Rijkenberg, Eswatini, on average, made about E11 billion from SACU. He said this year, the country got a share of E13 billion, but that was not something that would be very common, as this was a surplus year. Such years did not happen very often, according to the minister. SACU is one of the country’s two main revenue streams. The other one is the domestic taxes, which amount to around E13 billion.
