Refrigeration and Cold Storage Equipments in Botswana

The clearance point decides which VAT you pay

Botswana has no coastline, and the decision that most often costs an importer money is not freight rate but clearance point. Because Botswana sits inside the Southern African Customs Union, customs duty is assessed once, on the FOB value, at the Common External Tariff rate, on first entry into the union, in practice at Durban, after which the cargo moves without further customs duty. Value added tax is separate: Botswana levies 14 per cent on importation.

Enter the container for home consumption in South Africa and the buyer is billed South African VAT, then has to pursue a refund. The structure that avoids that is removal in transit, in bond, from the seaport to a Botswana inland clearance point, where BURS clears the goods and levies Botswana VAT. The bill of lading and the transit documents must be drawn up for that routing before the vessel sails. After South African entry it cannot be put right. Botswana Railways handles containers at Gaborone and Francistown, so inland clearance is practical.

Two corridors

Durban is the usual gateway, followed by 1,100 to 1,200 km of rail or road to Gaborone or Francistown via Pioneer Gate/Skilpadshek, Tlokweng/Kopfontein, or Martin's Drift/Groblersbrug for heavy vehicles. The alternative is Walvis Bay and the Trans-Kalahari Corridor to Mamuno, where Botswana operates its own dry port, often quicker and less congested, though sailings from China are thinner. Declarations are in English on Form SAD 500.

Compulsory standards and the accreditation trap

The Standards (Compulsory Standards) Regulations S.I. 71 of 2023, amended by S.I. 48 of 2024, require goods under a compulsory standard to be tested in the country of origin and to arrive with a Certificate of Conformity, with a BOBS compliance certificate held before the goods land. Mechanical products are a listed family, but whether a given refrigeration tariff line appears in Schedule I is unsettled; put the HS code to the BOBS Compulsory Standards Unit. With no national accreditation body, reports go to boards in South Africa, Mauritius or the United Kingdom, and a Chinese test report may be refused unless its laboratory holds ILAC-MRA-recognised accreditation.

Supply, specification and who may bid

Supply is 230 V at 50 Hz, with 400 V three-phase industrial. Types D, G and M are all genuinely in use, M on industrial and older buildings, so above roughly 2 kW take a hard-wired terminal connection on a Combine Island Freezer for Beef or Ice Cream Display Freezers and let the contractor terminate. A compressor's capacity figure belongs to one supply frequency; refrigerant, the ambient the cabinet must hold against and the expected pull‑down belong in the quotation.

Part XI of the Public Procurement Act 2021 reserves schemes for citizen contractors — wholly citizen-owned and controlled — which is not the same as a local contractor. Bidding through the PPRA's IPMS platform usually requires a citizen-owned partner, not a branch. Warranty, installation and training follow the supply contract; spares and servicing are not offered.