Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), better known as ‘order with me’ have imported goods worth N.dollars 684 million between April to 12 December 2022 from China, the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) has revealed.

Engaging the SMEs here on Tuesday on the handling of imported goods at airports, processes and procedures, NamRa’s Manager for Central Region Customs Operations, Abner David, said the goods imported included mainly cell phones; routers; waist trainers; handbags; clothing; hair and wallets.

He said for goods that are detained for any reason, NamRa customs issues a detention notice fulfilment of requirements to the SMEs, noting that if requirements are not met the detained goods are seized and transferred to the State warehouse.

David noted that challenges faced during the clearance process mainly include revenue leakage, inaccurate trade statistics and integrity issues on some clearing agents amongst others.

At the same event, NamRa’s Commissioner Sam Shivute refuted allegations made against the agency earlier this year for allegedly burning counterfeits, saying the agency never burned imported goods and that the video that made rounds on social media was old footage before the agency’s existence.

“People should refrain from listening to one-sided stories and people should stop making assumptions on things that never happened and do not have proof as it causes public confusion,” he noted.

Meanwhile, a group of ‘order with me’ operators stressed that their goods go missing and some are taken by NamRA without any form of indication. They further demanded a 50 per cent refund of goods that go missing in the hands of NamRA.

Present at the event, Namibian Ambassador to China, Elias George Kaiyamo, noted that no Namibian should be hindered from doing business, noting that politics should be left out of business and all cases of missing goods should be reported and handled equally by the agency.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency