Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart said that if the “wealth tax” proposed by the Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Investment Promotion Mthuli Ncube in the 2024 National Budget is levied, it must be paid directly to local City and Town Councils so that they can determine how to use it.
In his 2024 National Budget presentation on Thursday, Ncube said the wealth tax will be levied at a rate of 1% of market values of residential properties with a minimum value of US$100 000.
Coltart argued that the wealth tax is not only problematic in principle, but also that there is no guarantee the central government will remit the funds to local authorities. He said:
My greatest concern about Professor Ncube’s proposed new tax on properties is that it impinges upon Local Councils’ right to levy rates against property owners within Cities.
Whilst the tax is in principle problematic it is made worse because it will go to the central government with no guarantee that the money will come back fairly.
The City of Bulawayo has already suffered greatly since car licence fees were sent to ZINARA rather than BCC.
Likewise, although the City of Bulawayo built 5 dams using rate payers’ money it now has to buy the water stored in those dams from ZINWA.
The fact is that we get a fraction of the money paid to ZINARA which is impacting our roads. The same applies to ZINWA.
The City could have built more dams if it had been able to invest the money it pays to ZINWA.
Now the government wants to take further money based on the value of houses based in Bulawayo.
We have no guarantee that this money will come back to Bulawayo – indeed history shows that it probably won’t come back fairly.
For that reason, this new tax is completely unacceptable. If it is to be levied then it must be paid directly to local City and Town Councils so that they can determine how to use it.
If the principle of devolution is to be respected then local authorities must be given the financial power to develop the Cities/Towns they are responsible for.
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