The organisations staff car purchasing schemes have become one of the attractive employee retention models around the world.
The human resources expert’s states that staff motivation schemes are crucial for organisational success because it directly impacts employee engagement, performance and retention that ultimately leads to higher productivity and profitability.
Motivated employees in any company and in any country are more likely to be committed to their roles, contribute to brand loyalty, and stay with the company longer, resulting in reduced turnover and operating costs.
The Zimbabwe government’s adoption of the duty-free car import facility resonates with the above and I couldn’t agree with them more.
In order to qualify for the rebate, the public servant must submit an application letter, a recommendation letter from the responsible permanent secretary confirming employment, a copy of the intended beneficiary serving public servant’s driver’s license, a purchase invoice for the motor vehicle being imported and an approval letter from CMED for the loan in the case of funding from the CMED transport purchase fund.
The regulations for this facility that are contained in Statutory Instrument 247 of 2023 gazetted on December 29 in 2024 by Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube empowers the civil servants of Zimbabwe to become more productive.
The civil servants and those employed by other service commissions, the rebate on duty is intended only for those who are not issued with a condition-of-service vehicle, thus excluding senior civil servants who do get a government car as part of their package.
The regulations stipulate that a rebate of duty shall be granted in respect of one motor vehicle imported or taken out of bond by a serving public servant of Zimbabwe who is employed in the civil service and service commissions and who is not a senior civil servant issued with a condition of service motor vehicle and should not be under any disciplinary proceedings.
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The condition that one should not be under disciplinary proceedings increases loyalty to management and organisational rules.
Anyone who qualifies should secure the money to buy the car from either a loan availed under the Transport Purchase Fund managed through CMED (Private) Limited or the serving public servant’s own resources.
The car should solely be for the private and business use of the serving public servant and not for commercial or trade purposes.
I believe that this emphasis is important on the backdrop of previous abuses by other civil servants who risked this benefit being cancelled by government.
For those in grades B and C, the vehicle should be valued up to US$2 500, for D and E the vehicle should be valued up to US$4 000 while those at deputy director level the maximum is US$10 000.
The civil servants should have been in government’s employ for at least 10 years while the vehicle should also not be more than 10- years-old from the date of manufacture.
For public health workers employed by the Health Services Board or grant-aided health facilities, including junior doctors, the service requirement drops to at least two years while the vehicles they can import should be valued between US$2 500 and US$15 000 with the latter being for specialist doctors.
It is a condition of this duty-free scheme that the beneficiaries should not sell the cars before expiry of five years from the date of importation of a motor vehicle.
They are prohibited from offering or displaying for sale, lease or hire the same motor vehicle to any other person in respect of which a rebate of duty on such motor vehicle was granted, without the prior written permission of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority commissioner.
In the event that anyone sells the vehicle before the five years are up they will have to pay Zimra the residual duty, including interest on the assessed duty.
It is good timing to be writing about this duty-free facility for civil servants on May 1 being a Workers Day worldwide.
Of course I know you are reading this article May 4, but I submit my articles with a deadline of every Thursday because of editing and printing time.
This benefit is strategic more so in the appreciation that having a car goes beyond the need for transport — it boosts confidence to human beings — it improves the image of the person and in the African beliefs is it a sign of success.
Apparently, in 2015 as the managing director of World Navi Zimbabwe I approached the Public Service Commission and submitted a proposal for the commission to consider allowing civil servants to be allowed a benefit to import used cars once every five years on duty-free in which our company was seeking to be the supplier of the vehicles into 10 bonded warehouses across all the major towns of Zimbabwe.
I was allowed to do some presentations and my partners from Japan were in attendance.
It was during the same period that we managed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BancABC Bank, which is now Atlas Mara.
Under the MoU we were the supplier of used cars to civil servants and Bank Easy Microfinance, a division of BancABC would give 100% finance to the civil servants to import cars from us.
I am not suggesting that I influenced the government of Zimbabwe to introduce the duty-free facility to the civil servants on used cars, but I am happy to see that something that I had a vision about and took steps to breathe life into it was eventually implemented and indeed today people are benefiting from it.
There are many downstream benefits to this scheme, including increased clearing and forwarding business, increased volume of sales to the local dealers and increased exports from the exporters from Japan and other countries.
But I strongly believe that here is still room for improvement to make the scheme operate seamlessly by strengthening the product purchasing points within all the provinces of the country so that civil servants do no travel far to view and purchase.
In my view the CMED Transport Purchase Fund and the group of government departments that receives applications should create a committee and engage the local dealers and the exporters that could lead to supply structure into bonded warehouses across the entire country.
Bringing the products closer to the market is important to make the purchasing decision more secure and faster.
I know for a fact that in cases where the civil servant secures a loan from CMED Transport Purchase Fund on a car that is yet to arrive into the country there will be additional charges that may arise that will affect the smooth flow of the transaction that may trigger additional borrowing.
I, therefore, want to encourage private companies to introduce a similar scheme for its staff.
Furthermore, I am willing to engage with the government departments that are involved in the scheme and work together to improve the purchasing structure involving importation, logistics and bonding the stocks across the country and bring shopping convenience.
*Stanley Makombe has 25 years of experience in the motoring industry, currently handling vehicle imports from Japan, Thailand, the UK, and South Africa into African countries. He is writing in his capacity and can be contacted on +254 743 900 590, on X @Stan_Carsales, email: stanley@stanleymakombe.com, www.stanleymakombe.com
