Grain millers urge official repeal of VAT on foodstuffs

THE Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) yesterday said Statutory Instrument (SI) 20, which imposed 15% value-added tax (VAT) on cereals and meat products and became effective at the beginning of the month, has negatively affected businesses with sales drastically plummeting by at least 15%.

GMAZ chairman, Tafadzwa Musarara pleaded with the Christopher Chitindi-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands and Agriculture to put pressure on the government to speedily gazette another statutory instrument to reverse SI 20, which remains effective.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa last week issued a ministerial statement in the National Assembly announcing the shelving of SI 20, but prices of the affected products such as rice, potatoes and meat have yet to be reduced in the absence of appropriate legal provisions.

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