In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the 2% per dollar tax was reasonable compared to similar taxes on the continent.
He said the new tax is an attempt to have everyone to pay their taxes. Said Ncube:
So the solution to containing the budget deficit is two-fold. There is the revenue expansion side and then there is the cost containment of expenditure. It also happens that the Zimbabwe economy has become more informalised, while more people are also on electronic platforms. So, we felt that the best way to get everyone to pay their taxes, to have an inclusive tax regime, is to target electronic transactions. And by the way, our rates are not even the highest on the continent. There are some countries — I don’t want to name these countries — which take 10 percent, 12 percent and so forth. So, two percent is not the highest.
More: Daily News
The tax is not the problem… The problem is how are you going to spend it. Is this gvt accountable for anything
In the countries that the Honourable Minister refers to with higher rates on electronic money transfer, the people have a choice to pay with cash or with cards. We do not have that luxury, our money ( hard cash) was taken from our accounts to pay for government luxuries and now we again have to pay to cover enormous deficit. Very clever indeed, master robbery.