HUMANITARIAN organisation ActionAid Zimbabwe has bemoaned the high levels of tax evasion, saying this has a direct effect on the pool of funds meant for development in the country.
Transparency International Zimbabwe has previously said the country is losing up to US$2 billion annually due to financial leakages and tax evasion, primarily driven by corruption and bribery of customs officials at ports of entry.
Speaking on the sidelines of the national dialogue on financing for development, outgoing ActionAid Zimbabwe country director, Joy Mabenge, said tax evasion has adverse effects on the economy.
"That impacts on what the government can collect and what they can then allocate for the public good, which is why the government itself can institute measures that can minimise leakages within the tax system,” he said.
"It is not only about one willing to pay tax or willing to do the right thing. The government itself must institute measures that make it possible for them to plug the leakages that we see in the tax system."
Mabenge pointed to issues of complicity by some of the government departments and officials in tax evasion practices.
There have been reports of big corporations and politically-connected individuals evading tax, prejudicing the country millions of United States dollars in potential revenues.
"There are high net worth individuals who splash money around, and we wonder whether they even pay tax to the government,” Mabenge said.
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"We do not know, we cannot speculate, but if all that money was to be appropriately taxed and the public gets to know that this money is being taxed and taxed for real and the money is going into public coffers and sponsoring and supporting the provision of public services, that would be a good thing.
In 2021, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority completed investigations of 142 cases of tax evasion and recovered over Z$750 000 and US$8 million.
