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Mr Gershem Pasi

Conrad Mwanawashe and Clara Mawere
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority intends to re-introduce metered taxis and put in place systems that will enable the authority to track revenue realized by commuter omnibus operators for tax collection purposes, a senior official has said.The metered taxis will be fitted with the Global Positioning System to be traceable and will be compelled to issue fiscal receipts, Zimra commissioner general Mr Gershem Pasi told a business forum organized by the authority in Harare yesterday.

He said the information will be simultaneously transmitted to Zimra’s offices in real time.

Commissioner General Pasi said this was one of the pilot projects that Zimra was undertaking and is expected to be introduced before the end of the year.

“We want to put our meters in taxis and GPS and will issue a receipt which will indicate the distance travelled and the charge. Simultaneously that information will be transferred to Zimra in real time,” said Mr Pasi.

“We will start with about five taxis as a pilot and then we can fine-tune the project before rollout. We will also work with commuter omnibuses but we will need the cooperation from everybody in the sector.”

The other pilot project that the commission is undertaking involves charging presumptive taxes during trading which is different from the current situation where they fall due on a quarterly basis.

“Presumptive taxes will be collected as and when trading. Our technical partners have been in the country for the past two weeks and these projects will be launched in the third quarter of this year,” said Mr Pasi.

He said SMEs will be grouped in a departmental store format where there would be a central payment system.

“There will be incentives for people operating in those places so that there can be a distinction for those operating formally and somebody who is on the streets,” he said.

ZIMRA is working with the relevant Government Ministries so that they can put in place systems that will capture contributions by everyone in the economy.

“This will help with record keeping of the businesses that takes place, but as we develop it further there will be other benefits such as bringing in the financial sector so that there can be more concessionary funding for those who will be operating from formally designated areas,” he said.

He said most of the companies which owed Zimra had started liquidating their obligations.

“The majority of the companies are making serious efforts to liquidate their obligation but we understand the situation where banks may not have sufficient funds to assist the companies and also were funds may be available the cost of those funds is too high. Companies cannot continue borrowing and the returns they are making are not enough to cover the interests,” he said.

ZIMRA signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with business which is a partnership for mutual cooperation between the two associations to develop the economy.

The forum is composed of representatives from Zimra, finance and banking cluster, industry and commerce, trade and facilitation, SME’s, ICT, agriculture and mining, the academia and the media.