Zimbabwe’s controversial 2% tax already paying off

Zimbabwe’s two percent tax on transactions imposed in October amid a lot of controversy is already paying off according to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

Zimbabwe Revenue Authority boss Faith Mazani said Zimbabwe was likely to breach the $5 billion collection for 2018.

The ZBC said ZIMRA had been surpassing its revenue targets by wide margins since the introduction of the 2 percent tax.

In October ZIMRA collected $449 against a target of $332.

It collected $498 million in November and $632 in the first 26 days of December. The target for November was $338 million while that for December was $443 million.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change legislators vehemently opposed the tax when Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube tabled the 2019 budget but they were beaten when Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front Joseph Chinotimba called for a vote.

Eighty legislators voted for the tax and 26 percent against it.

MDC deputy treasurer Chalton Hwende published the list of the 80 legislators who voted for the tax and asked the electorate to ask their representatives who voted for the tax why they did so.

Ncube said the 2 percent was going to be used to alleviate poverty and was going to fund the $310 million budget for devolution.

He also said it was going to finance the $40 million that legislators squeezed out of him after threatening that they would not approve the 2019 budget if the budget for Parliament was not increased from $101 million to the $163 million they requested.

Ncube was only able to provide them $145 million which was then approved.

The MPs were pressing for new 4 by 4 vehicles and an increase in their allowances, something opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said was out of line.

He promised to ask his legislators to explain why they were making wild demands for their own upkeep at the expense of the people that voted for them.

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