IT HAS been claimed that Zimbabweans are among the most taxed people in the world and this could not be further from the truth.
The Zanu PF government has a long history of resorting to raising taxes whenever its economic policies boomerang as they often do.
Last week Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa announced a raft of new taxes in his mid-term fiscal policy that was presented at a time when the economy is stagnating.
Chinamasa announced taxes on mobile phones and on the charges for using them and raised the levy on fuel.
The government imposed a 5% levy on making mobile phone voice calls and sending data.
A new 25% duty will also be charged on all imports of mobile phones, while the levy on fuel was increased to finance “inescapable expenditure”, he said.
The minister said economic growth would be slowed down by weaker performances in the mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors.
However, the government still expects the economy to grow by 3,1% this year.
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Besides raised taxes and import duty on various products, Chinamasa’s statement was bereft of any innovative plans to breathe life into the struggling economy.
The government has really not done anything to lure the badly-needed foreign investment.
Instead, confusion on the implementation of the indigenisation laws and President Robert Mugabe’s rhetoric against Zimbabwean white farmers still persists.
Companies continue to close down unabated and expectations were high that Chinamasa would do something to reverse the trend.
According to reports, a total of 10 Bulawayo companies were either liquidated or placed under judicial management between January and June this year.
Bulawayo used to be Zimbabwe’s manufacturing hub, but Mugabe rightly described it as a scrapyard due to massive company closures.
The trend reflects the state of the economy. Chinamasa’s statement that came a few months before the 2015 budget announcement, betrayed a government that is at its wits end.
