Zimbabwe's finance minister on Thursday announced a raft of tax hikes, including on mobile phones, in a bid to boost dwindling government revenue as economic growth stalls. Harare is facing a revenue crisis so severe it has been forced to stagger civil servants' pay days as businesses have closed, foreign investment has slumped and imports have risen.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa cut his output for economic growth to 3.1 percent this year, from a previous forecast of 6.1 percent, "in view of under-performance in manufacturing". "The slowdown in gross domestic product growth is also reflected in reduced revenue collections, depressed exports and imports," he said in his mid-term budget speech to parliament.
To boost government coffers, Chinamasa announced a five percent increase in mobile phone airtime and a 25 percent import duty on mobile phone handsets. Excise duty on petrol will go up to 30 US cents from 25 cents (0.19 euros to 0.23 euros) a litre and the import duty on motor vehicles will rise by between 15 and 20 percent. "Additional revenue collection will be unavoidable," Chinamasa said.
Comments
Comments are closed.