Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) says the Government and business should stop “blame games” and work together to end the country’s economic challenges.
Zimbabwe is experiencing runaway inflation which rose to 191.60% for the month of June as well as a rapidly depreciating Zimbabwean dollar which is now trading at around ZW$750 to the US dollar.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has accused business of sabotaging his government through the increase in prices of basic goods.
But speaking in a wide-ranging interview with The Zimbabwe Independent, newly-elected ZNCC president Mike Kamungeremu said the mudslinging should stop. He said:
Through continued and truthful engagement with our policymakers, we want to ensure that the blame game between the private sector and the government is put to rest.
Surely, prices cannot remain constant when the cost of production is going up; you look at the electricity tariffs, fuel prices, transport costs, bank charges, regulatory fees, and water tariffs, among others, they are all going up.
These are the main cost drivers, especially with an unstable rate of exchange (runaway parallel market rate).
Kamungeremu said the Government should allow companies to pay all their taxes in Zimbabwe dollars as this will boost confidence in the local currency. He said:
All government taxes must be paid in local currency so that government is not seen as rejecting its own currency.
If the issuer of the currency cannot accept it, who then do they expect to accept it?.
Right now ZIMRA (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) is penalising companies that paid corporate tax in Zimbabwe dollars after transacting in US dollars for the years 2019 and 2020 despite companies trying to demonstrate that all the US dollars earned were consumed by costs and profit was realised in local currency.
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