Zimpapers Logo

Minister Supa Mandiwanzira

THE government has expressed concern over declining revenues in the mobile telecommunications industry especially that of the biggest player, Econet Wireless, and pledged to intervene to improve the performance of the sector. Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira last week said the declining mobile network operators’ (MNOs) revenues would have significant repercussions on their tax contributions.

Earlier this year, Econet announced — in its financial results for the full year to February 28, 2015 — that it had remitted $1 billion to the fiscus in taxes, fees and other levies since 2009.

“The other day Econet CEO (Douglas) Mboweni paid me a visit and he was saying their revenues have come down, especially on the voice and he said the main reason was the over-the-top services as everybody no longer uses their services for voice calling but for Viber-calling, Whatsapp-calling and Skype, hence they were losing voice revenue to data.

“It worries us as government because we know that when revenues of one of the fastest growing or robust companies come down, equally contributions to the government come down, so we’ve a responsibility as a ministry to ensure that the revenues go up so that the taxman can also have his fair share,” said Minister Mandiwanzira.

In recent weeks, Econet and Telecel have made known their intentions to streamline their operations, which includes reducing salaries.

The minister said these cost-cutting measures by the companies was a clear indication that government intervention was a necessity.

“For us it’s not what Econet has been doing, it’s the signal Econet has been sending out, that ‘we’re to reduce our salaries, we’re to reduce costs, we’ve told suppliers that whether they like it or not they’ve to reduce their prices’. That tells you that there’s something wrong here. If they were doing well, and industry was doing well, we don’t think that there would be these kind of developments.

“It’s our responsibility to check what’s going on because we think what’s happening at Econet is also happening at other operators, but is not as pronounced in the media.

“We want to get to the bottom of the problems the telecommunications industry is facing so that we can assist in coming up with solutions,” said the minister.

“We need to do certain things as government to ensure that we reduce the impact of the problems the telecoms industry is facing . . . . We’ve ideas, and some of our ideas may not be practical because we’re not players.”

In a statement accompanying its financial results for the full year to February 28, 2015, Econet pointed out through supportive policies, the telecoms sector has “immense potential to continue to contribute to national development and complement government efforts in economic development.” — BH24