News / National
Zimbabwe crafts measures to punish tax offenders
15 Jan 2016 at 05:55hrs | Views
THE government is working on a cocktail of fiscal and monetary policy interventions to compel companies to pay taxes amid heightened concerns that evasion and avoidance of levies by corporates has bled the economy into its current crisis, businessdigest has learnt.
High-ranking government officials said Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was concluding an exercise meant to introduce punitive measures, through the fiscal policy, to tax offenders early this year as part of efforts to discourage tax offenses at a time government revenues continue to dwindle.
Fiscal tools, said a top official in the Treasury chief's office, will include measures to improve tax collection from the informal sector "bearing in mind that the country's economy is getting more and more informalised each day".
The government, added the source, has also tasked Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya to come up with measures, in his 2016 Monetary Policy Statement that is also expected this month, to improve tax collections.
Another source at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) said the government agency noted with concern how some big companies are devising methods to evade taxes.
This comes as the central bank is seeking ways to deal with illicit financial flows mostly in the form of tax evasion and avoidance.
According to Zimra, Zimbabwe missed its revenue collection target by 6% in 2009 before surpassing it by 15% in 2010. Growth was maintained in 2011 when the country collected US$2,8 billion - 11% above target.
Zimra figures for the third quarter of 2015 show a country in dire straits as net collections of US$878,22m, which is 91,1% of the target of US$964m. The revenue collector said there was a 0,71% decline in net revenue collections from the same period last year where US$884,46m was realised.
High-ranking government officials said Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was concluding an exercise meant to introduce punitive measures, through the fiscal policy, to tax offenders early this year as part of efforts to discourage tax offenses at a time government revenues continue to dwindle.
Fiscal tools, said a top official in the Treasury chief's office, will include measures to improve tax collection from the informal sector "bearing in mind that the country's economy is getting more and more informalised each day".
The government, added the source, has also tasked Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya to come up with measures, in his 2016 Monetary Policy Statement that is also expected this month, to improve tax collections.
This comes as the central bank is seeking ways to deal with illicit financial flows mostly in the form of tax evasion and avoidance.
According to Zimra, Zimbabwe missed its revenue collection target by 6% in 2009 before surpassing it by 15% in 2010. Growth was maintained in 2011 when the country collected US$2,8 billion - 11% above target.
Zimra figures for the third quarter of 2015 show a country in dire straits as net collections of US$878,22m, which is 91,1% of the target of US$964m. The revenue collector said there was a 0,71% decline in net revenue collections from the same period last year where US$884,46m was realised.
Source - the independent
