The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce has blamed a raft of punitive taxes and levies charged by at least 6 state departments for the sharp increase in the prices of meat. The ZNCC revealed this in a paper presented to Vice President, General (retired) Constantino Chiwenga, who was tasked to look into the issue of the price increases. Business urged the government to merge some of the departments to limit the number of levies.
At the moment, beef producers are levied or taxed by the following:
- The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)
- The Ministry of Health,
- The Environmental Management Authority (EMA)
- The Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA)
- The Division of Livestock Production and Development (DLPD)
- Rural district councils (RDCs)
Part of the letter written to the General by the ZNCC reads:
There are about five legislations which govern the beef industry, the beef industry is regulated by six government departments
The government departments are meant to assist in the development of the beef industry. But to the contrary, these have increased administration costs…through duplication of fees and processes. For instance, abattoirs are obliged to pay annual registration fees to AMA and concurrently pay department of livestock and veterinary services and annual environmental impact assessment fees (to EMA), which are viewed as punitive. Compliance costs per beast amount to almost $100, which is unsustainable for the sector. Almost all these costs are ultimately borne by farmers because abattoirs will shift the burden to them through suppressing prices. This is raising the prices of final beef output.
More: Financial Gazette
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There is no need to hide behind fingers, since the dollarisation of the economy, beef producers were operating viably while paying these levies to the above mentioned government departments and the retail price for beef ranged between $3-00 and $5-00 per kg. We need actual facts which have caused the prices to reach as high as $9-00 per kg which reflect a 300% increase. Does it imply that the above mentioned government departments increased the fees by a 300% margin.