Namibia Receives Outstanding Customs Payment From South Africa, Bank Says

Namibia received 800 million Namibian dollars ($109 million) from South Africa for an outstanding customs union payment, Bank of Namibia Governor Ipumbu Shiimi said.

The payment comes after a Southern African Customs Union, tribunal ruling in December on a dispute with South Africa, he said in an interview on Namibian Broadcast Corp. radio today.

Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland have argued that South Africa, the biggest economy in the five-nation customs union, used an unfair distribution formula to transfer money to other members.

A single tariff is imposed on imports into the region and revenue is shared according to a pre-determined formula dating back to 2002. South Africa’s government says its neighbors get a disproportionate share of tariff income and wants the formula revised. South Africa’s National Treasury said in its budget on the Feb. 17 that it expects to transfer 11.2 billion rand ($1.5 billion) to SACU members this financial year.

Namibia expects its revenue from the SACU pool to decline by 2 billion Namibian dollars this year, Shiimi said.

The global economic crisis slashed the region’s imports and customs revenue last year while trade agreements have also reduced revenue. Namibia estimated in its budget that it will receive 6 billion Namibian dollars from SACU this fiscal year, down from 8.6 billion Namibian dollars a year earlier.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chamwe Kaira in Windhoek via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

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