Effective 1 July 2013, Zambia introduced Statutory Instrument No. 55 of 2013 replacing Instrument No. 32 of 2013. The instruments provide a monitoring framework for and certain restrictions on foreign exchange transactions thereby empowering the Bank of Zambia. Following are briefly chief amendment in the new Instrument -
- The banks shall not monitor any amounts deposited abroad but generated by a resident of Zambia from supply of local goods and services in Zambia
- Payment of interest or prinicipal or an instalment on private external debt shall be monitored by banks
- The time period allowed for reptriation of export proceeds has been extended from 60 days to 120 days
- Also, the time allowed for international traders to provide to the financial service provider a customs clearanceof the imported goods or an evidence of provision of relevant services before remission of funds, has been extended from 60 days to 120 days from the transfer of funds
- All importers of goods and services are required to submit an import monitoring form to the the commercial bank, a requirement that applied only to importers over a certain threshold before.
- Exports or imports over USD 5,000 are required to be done through electronic transfer of funds, the limit has been decreased from USD 10,000. Further, transactions over USD 200,000 are required to be transacted through a letter of credit, where the limit has increased from USD 100,000.
- All payments of government security maturities to a foreign bank account or non-resident persons must be done through a commercial bank.
- Foreign investors in government securities are required to submit additional documents to the commercial bank used for the transactions.
- An earlier limit of USD 5,000 or equivalent in foreign currency per day that could be withdrawn over the counter by any person from a financial service provider has been removed. Similary, a limit of USD 1,000 per day or USD 5,000 per month that could be remitted abroad or used for an outward foreign currency transaction has been removed.
On 21 March 2014, the goverment abolished all regulations under this instrument.
