OVER 4 000 big businesses in Zimbabwe are not registered with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for tax purposes, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube revealed last Friday.

Presenting the Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), the minister said robust tax administration measures had been adopted to increase compliance and widen domestic revenue mobilisation, which is critical for oiling economic growth.

The interventions come at a time when Zimra is sitting on a tax debt of close to $4 billion, 23 percent or about $1 billion of it in interest, while 27 percent, amounting to $1,1 billion related to penalty charges, said Treasury.

“Growing revenue collections will entail widening the tax base and also strengthening compliance levels of the more than 4 000 big businesses estimated to be operating without registering for tax purposes with Zimra. These companies are therefore outside the tax bracket,” said Prof Ncube. He did not name the concerned businesses.

“Pursuant to this, Zimra will be bringing in all those who are outside the tax net to also begin contributing to the fiscus. This also entails enhancing capacity through training of Zimra staff to be able to net all tax dodgers to ensure they also pay taxes for the realisation of the vision towards an upper-middle income society by 2030.”

-State Media