BURS fights smuggling

The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) has ramped up efforts to curb the smuggling of goods into the country, such as prohibited vegetables and illegal tobacco products, by intensifying physical searches at all ports of entry and deploying its K-9 unit to bolster border security. Reports have been rife that some of big retailers are smuggling and undeclaring vegetables produce sourced from South Africa into the country, with that jeopardizing BURS tax collection capacity. Briefing the media on Thursday in Gaborone, BURS Commissioner General Jeanette Makgolo said BURS would continue to be vigilant and crack smuggling of goods such as illegal cigarettes popularly known as Mangwanda in the streets. 

“We are very strict against the smuggling of goods into the country. We are winning the battle against smuggling of goods and especially the vegetable produce. We have seen lot of locally produce consumed in our market. 

This signals that we are doing very well in terms of curbing smuggling,” said Makgolo. 

Collection 

Meanwhile Makgolo said, as of 31st March 2025, preliminary accounts show net tax collections stood at P61.097 billion. She said this figure surpassed the target of P58.704 billion by P2.393 billion or 4.08%. According to Makgolo, this is a record-breaking collection in the history of the organisation. She credited the impressive performance to the implementation of the 2024–2029 Strategic Plan, which focuses heavily on reducing leakages at border entry points. 

“Monitoring of high-risk and high-value customs consignments, particularly those in transit, to prevent diversion into the local market without paying applicable taxes and duties is one area we had to improve,” Makgolo said.  She emphasized the need to enforce tighter controls on all bonded warehouses, which hold goods yet to be taxed, in order to close off another major source of revenue leakage. 

“Intensifying physical searches at all commercial border posts and international airports to detect any form of smuggling and non-compliance was also important. We introduced the strategic deployment of tactical intervention teams, including Canine and Flexible Anti- Smuggling Teams (FAST), to deal with customs offences,” she added. Makgolo further noted that the strong revenue performance was also boosted by Value Added Tax (VAT) and Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts, which helped offset a shortfall in income tax collections. On the other hand, income tax underperformed during the period, with actual collections reaching P18.968 billion against a target of P20.714 billion. 

This shortfall of P1.746 billion reflects a 91.58% performance rate and underscores the need for stronger compliance and enforcement,” she explained. Meanwhile, VAT collections exceeded the target by recording P14.455 billion against the projected P11.280 billion. SACU receipts also beat expectations by P855 million, with actual collections reaching P27.566 billion compared to the P26.711 billion target, representing a performance rate of 103.20%. 

Oozing with confidence, Makgolo said this good performance is due to favourable exchange rates.