A Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) grouping has demanded the urgent introduction of wealth tax to facilitate the trickledown effect of financial resources to the country’s “have nots” in a bid to reduce the alarming poverty levels.
Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com, the Zimbabwe Fight Inequality Alliance, a broad based 18 member NGOs network’s spokesperson, Janet Zhou declared a week of action, piling pressure on the government to introduce tax for the country’s wealthiest.
“We are calling for the introduction and implementation of a wealth tax to facilitate the redistribution of wealth from people who have too much of it in order to meet the needs of the suffering majority. The abolishment of unjust and harmful tax incentives to multinational corporations is a long overdue outcome of a stakeholder consultative process,” Zhou said.
The remarks coincided with the commemorations of the Global Week of Action against Inequality which kicked off on January 15, 2022 which is also running a similar theme, Time To Tax the Rich and build People’s Recovery Plans for Covid-19.
“Poverty in Zimbabwe has risen to unsustainable levels surging to 7,9 million people plunging into extreme poverty. Surprisingly, the rich, political elites and wealthy corporations registered an incredible rise in wealth and assets whose origins are unfortunately a result of illicit public transfers into the hands of a few individuals,” she said.
Zhou stressed that it is time the government introduced a Covid19 Windfall Tax for corporates and individuals who have made phenomenal profits since 2020 to fund a just and equitable response to Covid19 induced poverty and suffering.
She proposed the urgent scrapping of the 2% tax or the alternative of pegging it above the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) which currently stands at $48 054 for a family of six.
Acceleration of lifestyle audits by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) together with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority was also called for.
“Restraining of dominant monopolies was also called for in key economic sectors such as telecommunications and energy to strengthen consumer protection by regulating the ability of dominant market players to raise consumer prices as well as instituting stronger systems of capital controls to minimize public resources leakages,” added Zhou.