THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has been challenged to upgrade its customer care services so that it can forge compliance among the business community, which helps uplift the economy of the country.
The call was made by Phelandaba-Tshabalala legislator Joseph Tshuma during a critical budget analysis meeting held in Bulawayo on Sunday this week.
“Any country that is dominated by an informal sector must actually strive to formalise that sector because we all know that governments are run by revenue generated from taxes mostly,” he said.
Tshuma said Zimbabwe was dominated by the informal sector, which constitutes about 76% of the economy , leaving 24% as formal, which is taxable.
“Organisations like Zimra that are tasked with collecting revenue must be worried and going out of their way and devising methods, strategies and systems that make it lucrative and easy for the informal sector to turn formal,” he said.
“I have seen the drastic measures that Zimra at times take. One day, I went into a pharmacy and I found that they had cut off a section of cosmetics because apparently, maybe they were looking for a duty receipt. So, they can read some stuff like that, but there are better ways of doing those things.”
Tshuma said various taxes and bureaucratic tendencies discouraged people from registering and being tax compliant.
“My assertion is that Zimbabwe must be user-friendly, must be business-friendly and actually create friendship and relations with businesses, especially the informal sector and give them a platform to be able to express themselves,” he said.
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The lawmaker highlighted the need for Zimra to create a platform to showcase that it actually pays to be tax compliant than to be informal.
“When people are compliant, there are so many benefits, businesses can be able to access things like loans in banks. They can access credit facilities from financial institutions,” he said.
Tshuma said Zimra should strive to create a conducive environment for the business community as that encouraged the informal sector to register and pay tax.
“Zimra should improve its relationship with the business sector and it is not an issue of putting a law,” he said.
“It is an issue of probably refresher courses in customer care, refresher courses in simple, logical handling of issues without causing any animosity among its people.”
Tshuma urged for a cordial relation between Zimra and the business sector, emphasising the need for an open-door policy.
