Businesses blast fiscalised tax device suppliers

minimise fraud in the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT).
At a meeting co-hosted by the Association of Business in Zimbabwe (ABUZ) and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) between suppliers and customers, customers challenged suppliers to improve their service delivery to prevent disruptions of business activities.
Speaking on behalf of ABUZ Dr Eric Bloch said as an organisation they were supporting the fiscalisation process as it was of national interest though they thought some issues had to be addressed.
“The imposition of the fiscalisation process when businesses can’t access credit lines from financial institutions subjects them to a lot of pressure.
“There is lot of expenditure as these require a lot of money to instal as they require a complete change of infrastructure and this is weighing a lot of businesses down because businesses are not liquid enough due to economic challenges,” he said.
He said they had already made representations to the Ministry of Finance to look into the issue.
Dr Bloch said the issue of businesses waiting for months to get a delivery was negatively affecting them as they have to face Zimra also.
Businesspeople complained that the $25 fine per day per product for not installing ETR was too high.
Responding to concerns from the business community, the chief executive officer of First Computers, one of the major ETR suppliers, Mr Pardon Gorova, said some of the machines were imported with faulty batteries.
“These machines could have stayed for a long time in the warehouse hence they develop problems which will result in a lot of breakdowns like the ones reported here.
“We are, however, working on improving efficiency and we are recruiting more professionals for rapid response to situations,” he said.
He encouraged businesses to organise themselves so that they receive training on how to operate the machines.
An official from Zimra said the authority was holding weekly meetings with suppliers to address challenges affecting customers.