Zimbabwe’s tax collector says revenue collection for the first half of the year totalled $1.66 billion, nearly six percent behind the $1.76 billion target as most tax heads underperformed due to a weakening economy.
Comparatively, the collections were three percent lower than the $1.72 billion collected last year, as company closures, job cuts and lower spending take their toll.
Zimbabwe’s government relies almost entirely on tax collections to fund its budget after falling out with multilateral lenders for non-payment of debt, now over $9 billion, and Western donors.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) said mining royalties were down 65 percent at $39.8 million on depressed international mineral prices and lower sales.
Corporate income tax declined by 15 percent to $167.5 million. Retrenchments and company closures negatively impacted on the performance of Individual tax pushing the revenue head 12 percent down to $379.5 million.
“Individual tax contributed the bulk of the revenue collected in the first half of 2015, contributing 23 percent followed by Exercise duty which contributed 21 percent to total revenue,” the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) reported today.
“Both VAT on imports and VAT on local sales contributed 13 percent a piece.”
VAT on local sales were down eight percent at $212.8 million.
Customs duty collections registered a 17 percent increase from last year to $160.4 million while an upward review of excise duty rates for petrol, diesel and airtime by government this year resulted in a 43 percent growth in total excise duty collections at $346.2 million
Revenue collections from other tax heads declined 34 percent to $46.1 million.- The Source
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