GOVERNMENT has dismissed assertions by rights doctors who are requesting information on the use of sugar tax revenue.
In a letter addressed to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)’s lawyers Kantor & Immerman dated January 17, 2025, Health and Child Care secretary Aspect Maunganidze said they did not get the letter written by the doctors.
“Reference is made to your letter dated January 13, 2025 on the above subject matter (Request for access to information: Surtax on sugar content in beverages).
“We note that the request for information from your client on December 16, 2024, which you referred to, was never received by the ministry. The stamped copy which you also mentioned was also not attached,” Maunganidze wrote.
“We note the permanent secretary for Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion’s December 13, 2024, response to your letter, where he advised that US$30,8 million from the special tax on sugar content in beverages had been collected.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care has identified the need to procure critical cancer treatment machines, which have not been available in the health sector since 2018.
“The Ministry of Health and Child Care has already started the procurement process for the much-needed cancer treatment machines and has since received all the required approvals from the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
“We believe that this will provide a long-term solution to the challenge of cancer treatment in the country.”
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In a letter dated January 13, 2025, ZADHR lawyers Kantor & Immerman wrote to the Health and Child Care ministry requesting information, stating:
“Reference is made to the above matter in which we filed our client’s request for information on December 16, 2024. We note that no acknowledgement of request let alone the requested information, has been received by us.
“We wish to point out the provisions of section 7(2) of the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 10:33], which enjoins an information officer to ‘. . . immediately provide a written acknowledgement of the request to the applicant’.
“It has been close to a month since you received the request. You have failed and/or neglected to provide an immediate acknowledgement of request as provided by the law.”
The doctors said they requested the information in terms of section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 10:33].
They reminded the Health ministry officials of “the provisions of section 8(1)… which gives you not more than 21 days from the date of the request to provide your response”.
“By our calculations, you have until January 17, 2025 to provide your response.”
The doctors want to know “how much revenue has been received from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion for surtax on sugar content in beverages in terms of SI [Statutory Instrument] 16 of 2024 viz Customs and Excise Tariff (Amendment) Notice 2014”.
They also want “an account of what cancer drugs and equipment have been procured from such surtax to date and to which hospitals these have been distributed”.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube introduced the special sugar tax in November 2023.
The special tax kicked in last year.
Last month, government said by the end of November, it had collected US$30,8 million from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages since the gazetting of the SI on February 9, 2024.
Finance secretary George Guvamatanga publicised the figures after the human rights doctors in November wrote to government demanding to be furnished with information on how much money had been collected from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages and if it had been used for the intended purposes.
“The procurement of drugs and medical equipment is under the purview of the Health and Child Care ministry. Hence, the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion ministry is not the competent authority to give you information on your second request.”
In November 2023 while presenting the 2024 national budget, Ncube proposed tax on high sugar content beverages, saying revenue generated therefrom will go towards the creation of a cancer fund.
He introduced the tax at US$0,02 per gramme of sugar in a refreshment beverage, which he later revised to US$0,002 after complaints by manufacturers and it was further slashed to US$0,0005 with effect from January 1 this year.
