OFFICIALS from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) yesterday delivered a blunt message to civil servants and Karoi’s business community that their salaries depend on the taxes paid by workers.
The officials told participants at a National Tax Awareness Campaign in Karoi yesterday that if citizens default, teachers, nurses and soldiers will go unpaid.
Claitus Munhande, Zimra communication and advocacy officer on tax education programmes, told SMEs, farmers, business community, artisanal miners and traders at a Hurungwe tax education workshop that it is everyone’s duty to pay taxes.
“Civil servants salaries are determined by low taxes that we contribute as citizens,” he said.
Munhande tore into the common belief that government pays civil servants, adding that “every teacher in class, nurse at the clinic and soldier on patrol” was paid from taxes collected from citizens and businesses.
“There is no separate government money. Your tax is their salary,” he said, framing compliance as a survival issue for public services.
He, however, defended controversial levies saying the government introduced the Aids levy to “deter recklessness” in communities and fund the national HIV response.
On the sugar tax, Munhande said the levy targeted health challenges and excessive fast-food consumption.
“These taxes change behaviour, not just fill coffers,” he said.
“We tax what harms the nation.”
In a clear shift in tone, Munhande warned: “Government enforces compliance through tax audits.”
He said Zimra was moving beyond education and voluntary payment.
Poor interpretation of tax laws has crippled many operations, he noted, hence the outreach targeting artisanal miners, farmers and SMEs.
But Munhande said enforcement would match education.
Meanwhile, an official from the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion ministry, Kudakwashe Venge, told participants that tax is a “social contract between citizens and the nation at large” which funds infrastructure, health, electricity and economic growth under National Development Strategy 2.
The official said widening the tax base remained critical as government pushed to fund service delivery without overburdening compliant taxpayers.-newsday
