adminChris Ndlovu
IN view of the general affluence of a number of citizens in Zimbabwe who enjoy expensive lifestyles that would even baffle millionaires in developed countries, one wonders why the tax authorities have a headache with revenue collection.
The question is how effective are our systems in detecting tax evasion. While first world countries and their citizens are cutting down on expenditure of purchasing expensive cars, for instance, Zimbabweans are in the forefront in the importation of one of the highest fuel consumption vehicles, which defies the notion that the economy is under-performing.
Besides the import prioritisation policy that is supposed to monitor the criterion used to import luxury goods that have nothing to do with the development of the country, one still wonders where Zimbabweans, complaining as they might be, get all this liquidity that will even shock a mere American citizen in the way the liquid US dollar is exchanging hands.
The basic fundamental problem is that a few individuals have amassed so much wealth to themselves and the same individuals are most probably the main culprits in tax evasion.
There is open undeniable public evidence in the form of multiple properties built with undeclared materials evading duty, expensive vehicles and cash transactions that have never been declared to the tax collector. All these funds are due to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).
Political predictive analytics
This is a system that has been maintained by the first world countries to detect and assesses the economic policies and their future effects to any economy. What happens today and what the citizens do will have either a positive or negative effect in the future. Whatever might be happening is a result of economic weak gate keeping that has resulted in an avoidable economic meltdown.
The weakening of public institutions, control mechanisms, abuse of political privileges and decisions that had no significant contribution to the economy, are some of the problems. This has resulted in some politically exposed persons feeling that they are immune to paying taxes, hence making decisions that only benefit themselves and their inner circles.
Whatever is happening is a result of having missed the predictive analytics of what might happen when people evade taxes and siphon billions of dollars outside the country.
As a result national infrastructure will collapse, hospitals will run out of necessary drugs, old people and orphans will have no one to look after them. Every successful economy jealously guards its resources and revenues. Having studied the policies of the basic liberation struggle objectives, one is baffled to realise how we have missed to train. The objectives and principles guiding the liberation struggle are to empower every citizen of the country, of which President Mugabe has always highlighted in his speeches, never a day did one hear him saying go and steal from the poor, evade paying your taxes, steal from your government, externalise foreign currency. I stand to be corrected if I am incorrect.
The President has often highlighted that people that we had entrusted to safeguard our resources are the same people that are always found sleeping. With the loss of revenue from Government coffers, this would lead to anarchy and chaos.
Political responsibility entails protecting the resources of the country from the economic hitmen, which the President has always highlighted.
The announcement of the introduction of bond notes has unsettled a lot of people. If one forensically scrutinises the accusations, it is solely by systems that are busy looting and sabotaging the economy and are playing hide and seek waiting to pass the blame to the Head of State.
If everyone was honest enough to pay all due taxes, import only necessary goods and contribute to the domestic economic growth, Zimbabwe will be in a different economic status. Zimbabweans are very fond of criticising their own country and appreciating their neighbours. It is like stealing money from your father, and food runs out at home and your father has patches on his pants, you go to the neighbours shouting that my father is useless and poor and forgetting that you personally contributed to the same.
While we greedily accumulate wealth for our personal reasons, first world citizens are busy working for their countries, they are not asking, what can their countries do for them, but what they can do for their countries. That is patriotism, which is lacking from our people. If we all jealously guard our country, elimination of corruption, nepotism, tribalism and favouritism we would be heading to a first world status.
How to tackle the problem head on?
Our revenue authority should immediately put up technological structures and systems, which can trace those who have evaded taxes dating back to yester- years. While some of the operating tax collection systems are running effectively, the critical system to be implemented is the tax evasion system. One wonders why the current systems have been found wanting, costing the country billions of dollars. Our resident tax evasion systems should help the revenue collector manage and collect all pending taxes, trace and track all externalised undeclared funds, reconcile all purchases of properties, expensive cars, cash transactions.
Technology is available through the use of big data, which is the backbone of advanced operating systems and can be employed to help the revenue collector achieve a tenfold target ever achieved.
The major challenge we have is that a number of individuals have stolen from Government with some boasting having more money than the state.
Such behaviour needs to be stopped and technology can do that.
Again with the use of big data and analytics utilising open data sources, from invoices, deposits, funds transfer documents and bank records, tax authorities may, in no time, bring many culprits to book and account for every dollar. This can be done through the application of the advanced financial forensics analytics that will audit trail all transactions.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo