The government has approved a review of licences, permits, levies, and fees in the tourism sector.
This follows a directive by the President for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to implement ease-of-doing-business initiatives across 12 key sectors within six months, beginning at the end of July.
The targeted sectors are health, agriculture, retail, tourism, transport, energy, manufacturing, broadcasting, telecommunications, liquor, construction, and financial services.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi said the full list of revised fees and requirements will be published in due course. Said Rwodzi:
“We have specific fees, licences and levies that have been dropped… most of them are cutting across by about half (50 per cent).
“We have a number of fees that affect our industry that include the transport sector as well as licensing for ZBC (radio and TV), those will be announced… so yes, we have specific fees and they will be published in the near future.”
Responding to questions posed at Tuesday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube said:
“In terms of how far we are willing to go, we have got reductions, some range from between 25 per cent to 50 per cent and some of them have been eliminated.
“So we have used a very fine tooth comb… and we are sure that this will go a long way in reducing the cost of business.”
Ncube said thorough research conducted before the approval of the reviews revealed that some fees and requirements were hindering the growth of the tourism industry. He said:
“The National Competitiveness Centre (NCC) has been able to do some very informative research which shows that these fees really have raised the cost of doing business.
“They render our industry uncompetitive regionally and also globally, so it is clear that any reduction that we embark on, a meaningful reduction, is going to improve our competitiveness.”
In his post-Cabinet media briefing, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Jenfan Muswere said:
“Cabinet considered and approved the review of licences, permits, levies and fees in the Tourism Sector in line with the Cabinet decision of July 29, 2025, which approved the review of licences, permits, levies and fees on business by Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“The review was undertaken to remove identified unjustifiable licences and permits, levies and fees, streamline duplicative and overlapping licences and permits, and reduce unsustainably high fees and levies.”
More: The Herald
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