RBZ measures affect car imports

In May, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe came up with a four-tier import priority list for the efficient use of foreign exchange resources, with a bias towards supporting the productive sectors of the economy and reducing the import bill. Due to growing cash constraints owing to the shortage of the United States dollar, the central bank came up with the import priority list to keep as much money in the country.

The list was grouped into four parts, priority list one to three and non-priority, the latter is where imported vehicles fall under. With this list in place, those wishing to import vehicles now have to go through a rigorous process, which involves getting approval from the central bank, a process which can take up to five months. The process involves extreme vetting to ascertain the reason and nature of the purchase.

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