THE ZIMBABWE Revenue Authority (Zimra) has said it is working on creating synergies with players in the tourism sector to enhance revenue generation and trade facilitation.
Zimra Commissioner-General Regina Chinamasa disclosed the plans at a breakfast meeting held in Bulawayo yesterday.
The Zimra boss said statistics had shown that the tourism sector contributed an average 7% towards the GDP of Zimbabwe, hence the need for close cooperation to jumpstart the economy.
“It is common knowledge that complex tax legislation, tax codes, high tax rates and high compliance burdens are powerful incentives for formalisation in any economy. High tax rates encourage tax evasion and other harmful tax practices,” she said.
“Our considered view and appeal to government is to envisage a low tax-rate regime especially in direct taxes like personal income tax paid by those in formal employment.’’
She said Zimra was working on a number of initiatives to encourage voluntary compliance, including setting up information kiosks where clients could use e-service platforms.
“Domestic resource mobilisation which is the generation and spending of domestically-generated funds to provide public goods has remained as a vital cog in our operation as Zimra, and to a greater extent Zimbabwe’.
“It is the only long-term panacea for the economy that is currently saddled with an international debt amounting to US$7,4 billion and a domestic debt of US$9,5 billion,’’ she added.
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Government has introduced various incentives to boost the tourism industry.
For example, while the general rate of corporate tax is 24%, operators in tourist development zones have a special rate of 0% in the first five years and 24% thereafter.
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