Only 800k Out Of 1.2 Million Vehicles In Zimbabwe Are Licensed - ZINARA

The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) says at least 400 000 vehicles being driven on Zimbabwean roads and are not properly licenced, prejudicing the country of millions of US dollars in potential revenue realised from the levy.

Addressing the media in Harare on Wednesday on the 2023 operational overview, ZINARA board chairman George Manyaya said there were 1.2 million registered vehicles in the country. Said Manyaya (via ZimLive):

You may be interested to note that figures from the Central Vehicle Registry department (CVR) show that Zimbabwe has only 1.2 million registered vehicles and of these, only 800.00 are compliant in terms of licensing.

Monthly, ZINARA licenses an average of between 130 000 to 150 000 vehicles only which amounts to between US$2.6 million and US$3 million a month which is predominantly received in ZWL.

In essence, with a compliance rate hovering around 60 per cent, the revenues collected under licensing are far below those claimed to be collected.

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Furthermore, in the year under review, licensing collection amounted to just over a third of the total revenue collected.

For instance, records show that vehicles that are registered in Harare are around 300 000.

ZINARA says it collected ZWL$868 billion against a revised budget of ZWL$768 billion in the year ending 31 December 2023.

Out of this amount, ZWL$536 billion was channelled towards road-related commitments. Said Manyaya:

We collect funds from various revenue streams that include tolling, vehicle licensing, fuel levy, and overload fees among other revenue streams.

I will focus mainly only on vehicle licensing where there has been some debate in some quarters that this revenue stream should be returned to local authorities.

The rationale behind collecting vehicle licensing fees on behalf of all road authorities was done to ensure that, by centralising this process, we achieve greater efficiency, accountability, transparency, and equitable distribution of funds.

While ZINARA said there were 1.2 million registered vehicles in Zimbabwe in 2023, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTATS) reported that in the year ending December 2022, the number of vehicles registered in Zimbabwe hit 1.5 million, up from 1.3 million in 2021.

More: Pindula News