The Sunday Mail
Vladimir Dube
Over 150 000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been formally registered in Harare, a development that has widened the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)’s tax base.
Said Zimra head of corporate affairs Mr Francis Chimanda:
“As a result of Zimra’s efforts, a large number of small businesses are now registered.
“To put this into context, Zimra has a small clients office (SCO) in Harare only which has over 150 000 registered taxpayers.
“So yes, there has been a significant increase in the number of small businesses contributing to tax revenue.”
Mr Chimanda said the taxman has enhanced its compliance enforcement strategies, through the implementation of the Block Management Systems (BMS), which was introduced last year.
“Some of the aims of BMS are to increase taxpayer compliance through continuous monitoring, tax education and bringing closer to the taxpayers services like tax registration.
“The BMS exercise is ongoing. A number of taxpayers not registered for tax purposes have been registered and those not complying with submission of tax returns and payment of tax are being engaged,” he told The Sunday Mail.
“In addition, some prosecutions have been initiated for those that warrant such action and such cases will be public once the courts start dealing with them.”
He said the revenue authority has raised “significant revenues” in the form of principal amounts, interests, and penalties.
Zimbabwe’s informal sector has been growing over the last two decades.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency’s 2022 first quarter labour force survey, 28 percent of the employed population was in the formal sector while 45 percent were in the informal sector.
In the 2023 National Budget, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said there was a need to support SMEs to grow through formalisation, which would boost Zimra’s tax base.
