The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) will now carry out unannounced audits to weed out illegal foreign currency trading activities by corporates.
This is part of new measures announced by Government on Thursday to curb illegal foreign currency dealings.
In a statement, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said:
“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority will also be carrying out compliance audits with respect to compliance with the Location Tax introduced during the 2021 fiscal year.”
Minister Ncube added that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will continue to closely monitor and analyse financial transactions to identify, expose and take action against perpetrators of money laundering and other financial crime.
He also said regulatory bodies including the Public Accountants and Auditors Board, will also be working on a framework to impose appropriate financial and professional sanctions on members of the accounting, auditing and other professions who may be complicit in superintending over illicit affairs by corporate entities which they are charged with running.
“Business who disregard the law and continue price their goods on the parallel market rates will have their licenses suspended,” he said.
Government is keen to curb foreign currency speculation by both individuals and corporates, which could undermine economic stability going forward.
According to Treasury statistics, Zimbabwe has seen a rapid growth of privately-held foreign currency reserves from levels around US$300 million in 2018, to US$1,8 billion currently held in local banks.
And official reserves have also increased from less than US$100 million to over US$1,2 billion.
