Currently, the registry is struggling to keep up with
demand. Speaking during a tour of the Central Registry by Home Affairs minister
Kazembe Kazembe yesterday, Registrar-General Clemence Masango said his
department was talking to government to increase fees for ordinary passports to
the equivalent of US$53 on the interbank rate, which could see application fees
for an ordinary passport costing $901.
“US$53 is what was approved and that is what can easily
enable us to provide a service, bearing in mind that not every applicant paid
US$53. We have seen people who require their passport in three days and they
paid US$253 at that time; and those who want it within 24 hours US$318. So
these two will help meet us halfway and achieve a win-win with those paying
US$53. So if we are to get a review, we must get a review of not less than
US$53 equivalent at the prevailing bank rate,” he said.
At the prevailing bank rate of around US$1 to $17, an
ordinary passport will cost $901, while a three-day passport will cost $4 301
and an emergency 24-hour passport will ask for $5 406.
According to Masango, even these fees will not allow
government to recover all costs related to production of passports.
“The costing excise was done in 2010. At that time, we had
fully dollarised and it was done on the basis of US dollars. The $53, is what
Cabinet approved as the minimum to be charged to get a passport, but not
necessarily the exact cost of producing the passport,” he said.
Kazembe, who was appointed Home Affairs minister recently,
faces a mammoth task to ensure quality and effective service delivery at the
passports office that is only printing 2 000 passports a day against a daily
demand of 1 800 passports and a backlog of close to 300 000.
He told the media that he hoped to address the crisis, end
corruption in the department and ensure that there is respectable service
delivery.
“I am glad to say that the RG’s Office has been working on
this. I am sure you understand that at some point, we were producing 60
passports per day, which was a record low and I am glad now they are now
producing
2 000 passports, which should come as a relief to our
people,” he said.
“Yes, it’s not good enough, but given the challenges that
we are facing, that of consumables and the issue of foreign currency, there are
competing demands because the resources are not that much. We need fuel, we
need electricity, issues that are beyond our control.” Newsday
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