By Own Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has refused to disclose the value of goods lost in three fire incidents in which its warehouses at Beitbridge Border Post were razed to the ground, saying the information was private.

On Tuesday last week, goods believed to be worth thousands of dollars belonging to travellers who had failed to pay duty were destroyed when a warehouse at the border post was gutted by fire, a third such incident following outbreaks in 2014 and 2016.

A Zimra official said investigations to establish the cause of fire were on-going.

Responding to questions from a local publication, Zimra acting spokesperson, Inzwirai Muonwa, said she was not at liberty to discuss the value of destroyed goods.

Said Muonwa:

“The investigation report of the State warehouse fire that occurred in 2014 was not a public document and cannot be shared with the media.

The value of the goods destroyed in the 2014 warehouse fire related to specific taxpayers’ information that cannot be disclosed.”

She said she was not in a position to disclose the value of the goods burnt in the fire that devoured an out-sourced State warehouse at the Red Star building, torched during riots against Statutory Instrument 64/2016 that banned imports of goods deemed locally available.

“The value of the goods lost in the Red Star warehouse fire relates to specific taxpayer information that cannot be disclosed,” Muonwa said.

She also refused to disclose the general description of the goods in the warehouse which got burnt last week.

Muonwa said the Customs and Excise Department had not auctioned the goods understood to have been held for over a year-and-a-half although Customs and Excise regulations stipulate that goods not claimed within three months should be auctioned.- Newsday