Business calls for tax amnesty extension

Dosman Mangisi Business Correspondent
BUSINESS has called on the government to extend the tax amnesty to end of year citing a number of challenges emanating from the prevailing economic climate. Liquidity constraints, intermittent power supplies are some of the operational constraints facing companies that have resulted in company closures and massive job losses.

The call for an extension of the tax amnesty was raised during the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) 2016 national budget consultative seminar in Gweru recently. In his presentation, ZNCC past president Trust Chikohora said extension of the tax amnesty by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) from end of June to October 31 only was bad for business.

“Zimra has since re-extended the tax amnesty from June to October 31 this year, but the business people still feel it’s a wrong timing since a number of unfolding events have occurred impacting negatively on local firms’ operations.

“We’re close to the end of year and we plead with the government to extend the tax amnesty to December 31, 2015 as this will be after the 2016 national budget presentation. We hope by the time the national budget will be presented, some of our contributions towards tax regime would have been considered and put into effect,” he said.

Another participant during the seminar added: “The non and late payments of debts is now a threat in doing business. You supply today, tomorrow the company is closed or goes under judicial management, putting one’s business into a loss. The government is taking too long to pay orders, at times to a period of up to six months . . . it threatens the clients and this remains a burden.”

The businesspeople also said the current tax regime in the country needs to be seriously reviewed as businesses were subjected to multiple taxation in some sectors of the economy like mining and properties. They said multiple taxes were bad for foreign direct investment.

“As a country, our current tax regime isn’t so appealing to business as some taxes are being duplicated especially in mining and property sectors. We need a low tax regime economy as an incentive to businesses in order to attract FDI as well as stimulating and enhancing competitiveness.

“This approach will go a long way in revamping the economy”, another said. ZNCC chief executive officer Christopher Mugaga urged private and public investors to work collectively to rejuvenate the economy. He called for more innovations in different sectors as well as reducing operating costs.