Zimra axes Customs & Excise boss

THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has terminated the employment contract of Acting Commissioner Customs and Excise Mr Tichaona George Chiradza with immediate effect.

But the slow pace by Zimra in rolling out ECTS and fiscalisation, which directly impacted on national revenues, is worrying and has to be subject to enquiry.

Government made fiscalisation — which entails the use of tamper-proof fiscal tax registers that transmit real-time data to Zimra’s servers — legally enforceable by gazetting Statutory Instrument 104 of 2010 on June 8, 2010.

Five years later the project looked to have been aborted.

The 2010 National Budget proposed to introduce ECTS on April 1, 2010, but the project only took off on January 1 — a full 2 467 days (six years and nine months) after it should have been operational.

It is only after the appointment of Mrs Willia Bonyongwe as Zimra chair on June 29, 2015 that the proposed reforms began to gain traction.

Fiscalisation has been expanded to include businesses that generate more than US$60 000 per annum, which should naturally increase compliance and improve revenue collections.

Senior executives, including Commissioner General Mr Gershem Pasi, have been suspended and are facing

He has since been replaced by Mr Adrian Swarres.

In a letter addressed to staff members recently, Zimra said the decision had been mutually agreed.

Zimra is currently undergoing a various disciplinary procedures.

It is these executives who wittingly or unwittingly superintended over an inefficient tax collection system.

It will be interesting to establish how much Government was prejudiced of in the period that tax compliance systems were not implemented.

Mrs Bonyongwe’s statement accompanying the 2016 revenue performance report is particularly interesting.

“The failure to surpass revenue targets in 2016 is not largely due to the prevailing harsh economic conditions but, like indicated previously, in unwillingness to meet tax obligations by economic agents.

“If Zimbabwe is to develop, there is need for a paradigm shift in the way we view this obligation across the board. Zimra has started but is still a long way from fully implementing its efficiency and compliance measures.

“But there has to be a concerted effort by all stakeholders to ensuring that we can sufficiently fund our roads, man and equip our hospitals and schools and pay our civil servants adequately and on time.

“We also need to have a significant surplus for capital investment and we restore that is designed to make it an efficient and effective organisation.

There has been unrestrained revenue leakages over the years, and Government is determined to plug the loopholes. in Zimra believe that is achievable. We cannot afford to have enclaves who do not pay tax,” she said.

In life there is nothing more certain than death and taxes. In some jurisdictions, paying taxes is sacred, while evasion — on the other hand — is considered a capital offence.

Officials culpable of wholesale tax evasions either by omission or commission, especially at a time when the country’s coffers are running on empty, have to face the music.

In this case, in the worst-case scenario, disgraced officials will get nothing more than a dismissal, a slap on the wrist and a golden handshake.

But as the Americans say, when there is blood on the streets somebody has to go to jail. Feedback: darlington.musarurwa@zimpapers.co.zw