Customs duty on imported wheat flour and maize meal has been suspended for six months from 22 May to 21 November in terms of regulations gazetted yesterday by Minister of Finance and Economic Development Prof Mthuli Ncube.

Statutory Instrument 219, giving the details of the three tariff items, suspended duty for bags of wheat flour of 50kg or more, smaller packs of wheat flour and maize meal.

A second statutory instrument had already split the tariff item that covered both maize groats and maize meal so the meal duty could be suspended without simultaneously suspending the maize groats duty.

The suspension of the duties is part of Government efforts to reduce prices and ensure affordability of needed imports.

While Zimbabwe normally prefers to import the raw grains for local millers to process, imports of milled flours and meal have been made easier in the past when there are or could be shortages.