Vendors who sell their products alongside the road leading to Chinatown Market in Windhoek are not happy with the way Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) is purportedly handling their businesses.
They have expressed worry over the products being seized by the revenue agency as part of its campaign to punish companies that manufacture counterfeit items.
These are the vendors conducting business outside Chinatown and selling cosmetic and medicinal products. They expressed dismay with the methods employed by NamRA in its operations.
Just last week, these vendors alleged that NamRA officials seized a portion of their products, an action they described as a nightmare in their pursuit of earning a livelihood.
One of the vendors remarked that NamRA should focus on being a vigilant guardian at the borders, actively preventing the influx of counterfeit goods into the country. This approach, the vendor argued, would spare them the expense of investing in products that could potentially be confiscated, thereby avoiding the significant losses that such actions inflict upon their businesses.
“We are struggling, but we have NamRA confiscating our products. NamRA just comes and takes the goods, and they do not inform us of the reasons why the products are being confiscated. Everything they find on the tables, they just take. Then he writes us letters, and they do not refund our things that they took. Things come through the borders. We do not buy the stock at the border. We buy it locally. My question is for those who are at the border. Why do they allow these products into the country? Because now we are just wasting our money. We have children, and we help them through our businesses. We do not have employment, so we are surviving through our businesses.”
Another vendor stated that there are no products or goods in the country that they can buy locally to start up their business.
“We buy these products from other countries because there are no factories in Namibia where we can buy our stock and start our businesses. There, we buy it for a cheaper price. We do not know the reasons behind these gels. They also confiscated the cockroach killers, but they didn’t warn us not to sell them. They just come and confiscate them because they say they are poisonous to people. Through these, we suffer a huge loss. When we see NamRA, we hide our products. Perhaps they can work with the other countries to build factories in the country so that we can buy the registered products. “
They say so far they have incurred losses as their goods have been confiscated by NamRA officials.
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