The Sunday Mail
Prince Mushawevato
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has denied being culpable of delaying the introduction of electronic fiscal devices — foolproof gadgets that are designed to improve accountability in tax administration by retailers — and, instead, blamed the “inherently” complicated nature of the system.
Fiscalisation was officially launched in August 2010, but it is yet to be implemented significantly.
Currently, the companies that were compelled to buy the devices during the initial phase of the project are not linked to the Zimra database, rendering the system redundant.
Concerns that Zimra is not keen to move to the next phase have been raised within the market.
Statutory Instrument (SI) 104 of 2010, which was gazetted on June 8, 2008, requires all operators with an annual turnover of US$250 000 and above to record their sales using electronic fiscal devices.
In an interview last week, Zimra Commissioner-General Mr Gershom Pasi said the Authority had made strides in trying to speed up the implementation process of the project, but the complicated Information Technology (IT) system had proved burdensome to operate.
Zimra, he said, is “implementing and refining” the system so that it will be done at a much lower cost than currently obtaining.
At present, most of Zimra’s processes are either based on inefficient systems or on manual operation (patrols included) that lead to congestion during peak periods at the country’s entry and exit points.
The situation has created a perfect platform for some of the revenue collector’s employees to benefit from the corruption and evasions that are inevitably born out of the inefficiencies.
“We are revising the approach so that when we re-launch the thing (fiscalisation), it will be a much faster project. The technology that we had identified was not really appropriate and was costing more to convert it to be compliant with the computerised system, so we are reviewing that and we will be coming up with a more user friendly system that will be operational soon. We are almost through the scoping,” he said.
Information gathered by The Sunday Mail Business suggests that the unit that was created to spearhead the implementation process has since been disbanded.
Mr Pasi denies this. “The unit was not disbanded. Its staff does different activities at different times. There was never a particular unit for the project, and it just does anything assigned to it. And if there are people who are working in cahoots with lobby groups to stall the project, let us know them, but what I can assure is that once the system we are working on is finalised, it will be null and void to try and fight the system.”
He further said that there are experts who have already been engaged to map the way forward.
It is believed that when the project takes off it will also cover the informal sector.
“When we started the project, the Authority had not been enabled to receive data from the machines installed. We did not have the capacity and that is the capacity we are now putting in place. The fiscalisation project is one of the pilot projects that we have been mapping up and we will be launching some of these in the third quarter. As we speak, we have a technical team that is in the country working on the systems,” explained Mr Pasi.
Experts say for the new system to be effective in boosting revenue collection, the Authority has to make sure that the two-way communication system is efficient and foolproof.
In essence, Zimra was supposed to be the lead agent in the implementation of the project.
Economists opine that fiscalisation can be a crucial tool or means of ensuring compliance and improved revenue collection as it promotes a wider revenue collection base by bringing all groups inside the tax bracket.
A research conducted in Kenya on the effectiveness of electronic fiscal devices reveals that the devices have enhanced revenue collection resulting from improved sales and audits.
