The tourism, hospitality, and agricultural sectors have raised concern over what they describe as excessive taxation and burdensome bureaucracy, which they say are choking business operations.
According to research by local fact-checking organisation ZimFact, Zimbabwe has at least 50 different taxes. This figure is based on an analysis of key tax laws, including the Finance Act, Income Tax Act, Customs and Excise Act, Capital Gains Tax Act, Value Added Tax Act, Stamp Duties Act, and the Revenue Authority Act.
Beyond these, businesses are also required to pay various fees to local authorities, statutory bodies, and monetary regulators—further increasing the cost of compliance.
Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe CEO Paul Matamisa told NewsDay that accommodation providers are required to secure up to 25 licences, while tour operators must obtain as many as 15. Said Matamisa:
They have got a cost, every one of them comes with a cost, so that is an additional cost to our input costs into the business. They also affect us in terms of the time you spend running around and chasing these regulatory requirements.
It is costing itself. If you do a cost-benefit analysis, you find that there is a cost attached to it.
Government must accept the principle of their business as being facilitatory. They are not there to make money out of the businesses.
They will make money out of the businesses after the business has been done, out of the operations.
They will make money through corporate tax and so on, but you cannot charge the business at every step. It becomes too punitive.
Matamisa noted that, despite businesses striving to remain operational, many end up recording losses as a significant portion of their earnings is consumed by regulatory costs and compliance fees.
He urged the government to go beyond regulatory reform and also focus on boosting consumer spending by ensuring workers have more disposable income through salary adjustments and other incentives.
Echoing similar concerns, Zimbabwe Farmers Union economist Nyasha Taderera said the agricultural sector is also weighed down by a complex web of taxes, levies, and overlapping regulations that hinder productivity and growth. He said:
We need harmonisation of our regulations so that we do not have several regulations speaking to the same thing. There are no overlaps. We also need one-stop shops so that it is easy for the farmer to comply.
We also want to see the levies that are being paid by the farmers being ploughed back into the industry and benefiting the farmers, and not just being a source of income for the regulators.
The current levies imposed on farmers are excessive and unfair. Take the land levy, for instance, which is charged per hectare without considering the scale of production or regional differences in productivity.
She said farmers in regions four and five, where yields are generally lower, were feeling the pressure more than most.
Taderera suggested it would be fairer to set levies based on how much farmers actually produce per hectare, rather than applying a blanket charge.
More: NewsDay
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