The Revenue and Customs Authority of Ethiopia has announced the reduction of the 20 million birr capital requirement set 
for IT companies interested in supplying electronic cargo devices to 5 million birr.
ERCA reevaluated the former directive which required a company to have 20 million birr in capital, a five year contract with a major IT supplier, and present a performance bond worth 2 million birr to certify as a vendor for the tracking devices as many in the domestic IT sector protested the criteria.
The current amendment to the directive not only lowers the capital requirements by 75% but it also allows assets of the company to be considered as capital. ERCA also offered a bank guarantee of a similar value as an alternative to the 2 million birr insurance bond required by the directive.
At the present time FC Tracking, Global Tracking, GCS Tracking and Rasmi Industrial Solutions have submitted applications to receive certification from ERCA to supply the electronic tracking devices.It is expected that a trial application of the electronic tracking system will be applied on an estimated 500 trucks as soon as the amended directive is approved by Melaku Fenta, Director General of the ERCA.
It is to be remembered that ERCA decided to launch an electronic cargo tracking system on the road between Addis Ababa and Port Djibouti to track and monitor the transit of goods, to reduce customary theft that added up to 1.4% of commodities exported in the last fiscal year according to statistics from the International Cargo Securities Council.
Source: Addis Fortune
