Zimra vows to tightens revenue collection

All Government departments which collect revenue for different purposes must remit the funds to Treasury for accountability and smooth allocation to areas of urgent need, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Commissioner-General Gershem Pasi has said.

Speaking before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Economic Development yesterday, Mr Pasi said some of the money being collected by the departments was difficult to trace.

He said Zimra had been burdened with raising money to fund Government operations, yet other State agencies where not remitting funds they were collecting.

"For instance, an example which comes to mind readily, we all know the roadblocks that we have," he said.

"Sometimes we hear figures of US$3 million, US$7 million, being collected per month from those roadblocks.

"That is the amount which finally gets to be accounted for, not talking about what goes into the policemen's pockets. And then at the end of the month we have an issue with Treasury, they want money for salaries for the same people who are collecting.

"We still need to find money for fuel to take prisoners to the courts and so on, but we don't get a schedule of how all those monies which are being collected elsewhere are being accounted for.

"We need to be smarter as a country and have all our revenues and then when we are allocating we know that we have allocated all that we have and it has gone to the approved use."

A number of Government departments, apart from the police, collect fees and levies for various services, but are not remitting it to Treasury.

Comm-Gen Pasi said a new management system of Government revenues was needed to ensure accountability and improve inflows.

"Perhaps it's time we look at how we run our Government finances like when we go for our weekly meetings with Treasury and so on, when we look at the Government cash flow," he said.

"On the revenue side, it's Zimra and on the expenditure is everybody, including parastatals.

"They want their grants and so on, but the revenues which are being collected across the board, really, nobody can account for it to say where the money is going. So, I think it's time we start a programme to say all the revenue should go through one channel which can help us account for that revenue."

The chairperson of the committee and Mutoko South legislator David Chapfika promised to take up the matter with relevant authorities.

"The issue of the Consolidated Revenue Fund is an issue that must be revisited," he said.

"We will definitely raise that issue which you have raised with the minister because we think it has created a lot of distortions.

"When it was created it was during the hyperinflation era, but now that we have a multi-currency regime that issue needs revisiting."

In the first quarter of this year Zimra collected US$856,35 million, with the bulk of it going towards financing the civil service wage bill.

Mr Pasi said Government revenues could be increased if commodities that were exempt from paying duties were reduced.

He said the import bill for this year's first quarter was US$1,422 billion although goods valued at US$817 million did not pay any duty.

Government collected US$179 million in duty from the taxable US$557 million.

Mr Pasi said Zimra had also proposed to Government to change the law to allow the authority to attach immovable property from tax offenders.

He said Zimra was working with the Deeds Offices to create a database of the property sector to ensure that developers and home owners were complying with taxation laws.