Mthuli Ncube goes on a tangent, sounds very dodgy

FINANCE minister Honourable, Professor Mthuli Ncube goes at a tangent while trying to address the question of double taxation on Zimbabweans moving money from their bank account to their mobile money platforms for a transaction where there is no swipe machine.

In his interview the Minister was very dodgy, he goes at a tangent talking about the implications of governments extravagance on the broader economy and the need to charge the tax fairly across the board.

Below is the Minister's conversation with Newsday captured by TechZim;

Newsday……you protect intermediary accounts of companies, yet you don't protect a person who wants to move their salary from their bank account to their mobile money platforms like EcoCash for a transaction where there is no swipe machine. A person who moves $400 from their bank account to their EcoCash account or their other bank account is charged while companies are exempted.

Mthuli Ncube: You see, previously when we announced, the companies were going to pay a lot of money (which was bad because) then you start impacting on their profitability, their ability to employ people and so forth.

I think it's fair. What we have done is we have capped the burden for the wealthy and companies and also capped the burden for the poor also, so we have impacted both ends of the spectrum and that way is progressive.

Newsday: Minister, if your cap for the poor is benchmarked at $10, what of a poor civil servant who earns $400 who wants to move their money? This person is paying VAT [value-added tax], income tax, airtime tax, among other taxes?

Mthuli Ncube: No, no, you see, we have a bleeding patient and the patient needs to be fixed. So we have to stop the bleeding, we have a huge domestic debt, we need to plug that hole.

Listen, you don't realize that you are already paying, you are already bleeding. You know what's happening because of the high budget deficit and the issue of Treasury Bills which are keeping interest rates high?

Those interest rates are translating into a high cost of capital, especially for SMEs [small-to-medium enterprises]. So, if SMEs can't access credit and do their business and employ people, that's a cost to the nation.

So, you are paying already, but you are paying indirectly you don't realize it. So, the idea is to fix that original problem by making sure that all Zimbabweans are in on it.

If we move to a budget surplus, that will solve inflation issues, cost of capital issues and so forth and then this economy will move to a position of strength and then you will see prosperity.