By Staff Reporter
FORMER Finance Minister Tendai Biti has slammed the government’s newly enforced presumptive taxes as punitive and absurd, warning they will cripple informal traders, small-scale miners, transport operators and other small businesses already struggling in a weak economy.
In Public Notice 51 of 2025, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) outlined revised presumptive tax rates for the informal sector, reaffirming measures that were already included in the Finance Act of 2024, which was gazetted on October 24 last year.
The taxes, which range from US$5 to US$500 monthly, affect informal traders, small-scale miners, taxi and commuter omnibus operators, driving schools, hairdressers, cross-border traders, bottle stores and restaurants.
Reacting to the notice, Biti said the measures make Zimbabwe one of the most overtaxed countries in Africa.
“The public notice is a mere restatement of punitive presumptive taxes published in the Finance Act of 2024 gazetted on 24 Oct 2024.
“Some of the rates are absurd.
“Hairdressers are obliged to pay US$5 per chair per month with cross-borders paying 20% of the Duty value of goods being imported.
“Zimbabweans are overtaxed. Before the rebasing of the economy, taxes were 30% of GDP (double Africa’s average ) making Zim the most taxed African country,” Biti said.
The former finance minister said the government has no clear guiding ideas and is using taxes to cover up its reckless spending which falls on ordinary working people, leaving them with little or nothing to live on.
“At any given time the average Zim pays annually at least 15 different types of taxes and levies that include PAYEE, corporate taxes, IMMT, VAT, Fuel levies, carbon taxes, AIDS levies , excise duties on alcohol and cigarettes presumptive taxes, stamp duties toll gates, vehicle licenses, ZBC, stamp duties, customs duties, capital gains taxes, rates, NSSA to name a few.
“An ideological vacuous regime sees taxes as an antidote to an overzealous expansionary fiscal policy.
“High regressive taxes hit innocent working people who are left with little or no disposable income.
“Low disposable incomes underpin a crises of under accumulation, the basis of any economic recession. Thanks to high toxic taxes, an artificially tight monetary policy and a mismanaged exchange rate this economy is bleeding,” he added.