15 April 2025
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) says it will intensify physical searches at all commercial border posts and international airports in response to rising levels of smuggling at points of entry.
The tax authority’s Commissioner General, Jeanette Makgolo, said as part of their developed multifaceted revenue mobilisation strategy, they will amongst other things, intensify these searches to detect any forms of smuggling and any other non-compliance. Customs and border control has always faced challenges in preventing illicit trade and the increase in the number of cases involving goods smuggled into the country.
“There will be strategic deployment of tactical intervention teams – Canine and Flexible anti-smuggling Teams (FAST) – to deal with customs offences,” she told a media last week.
FAST is used in countries such as the United States of America to conduct proper search sequences when searching vehicles, aircraft, freight, luggage, mail, passengers and premises. The Search and Rescue canine teams are trained in tracking/trailing and are taught to detect concealed goods.
Makgolo highlighted that government is in need of every thebe for the socio-economic sustenance of the nation. Therefore, she said they will also monitor high-risk and high-value customs consignments, particularly those in transit to close revenue leakages. She said they would do that to avoid the diversion of goods into the local market without the payment of applicable taxes and customs duties.
“We will also enforce stringent controls on all bonded warehouses to close revenue leakages from bonded goods that are yet to be taxed,” said the BURS chief.
Makgolo revealed that all of these changes are part of the revenue mobilisation strategy, which was premised on the establishment of revenue performance monitoring structures, including a revenue collection war room.
She said the war room is meant to oversee operations and make timely decisions to facilitate daily strategising on measures to ratchet up revenue collection. Makgolo gave assurances that the BURS will bridge the collection gap created by poor performance by the traditional revenue streams and do everything in its power to ensure that the government is in a position to finance its intended projects and programmes.
Source: https://rb.gy/bb3aql
