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Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
Government has gazetted the Finance Bill that seeks to give legal effect to the various fiscal measures introduced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa when he presented his 2018 national budget a fortnight ago.

The Bill seeks to give effect to proposals on tax, value-added tax, customs and excise duties and mining royalties, which were made by Minister Chinamasa.

Parliament is set to debate the Bill and the 2018 National Budget when it resumes sitting today.

One of the aspects that the Bill provides are sweeping changes to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.

This is achieved by opening the bulk of sectors of the economy to investors of any nationality free from the current 51/49 percent indigenisation threshold in favour of Zimbabweans ownership.

The only exception would be in respect of platinum and diamond mining.

The Bill would also give legal effect to three forms of amnesty pronounced by the Government.

There is an amnesty in respect of funds and other property illegally expatriated before 1st December 2017, which was previously announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Another amnesty regards the unlawful hoarding of cash by traders, parastatals and money-lenders in breach of the Bank Use Promotion Act, where the breach occurred before 1st December

The third is a tax amnesty that will waive interest and penalties on arrears of taxes and duties that became due and payable before 1st December.

Clause Six of the Finance Bill stipulates that if a company wound voluntarily and the directors form another company, they would still be liable for the amount of tax due and payable by the old company.

Clauses 16 up to 23 of the Bill cover the scope of amnesty being extended to persons.