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