ZIMRA snatched the ZNCC BEST PUBLIC ENTERPRISE OF THE YEAR AWARD for Matabeleland Region amid pomp and fanfare at a colourful ceremony held in Bulawayo last Friday.

 

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) annual Business Awards seek to honour and recognise business excellence and acumen leadership exhibited by business leaders such as ZIMRA.

 

ZIMRA won the award owing to its responsibility in creating and enhancing economic growth, promotion and the increased the use of local suppliers, content and materials in its operations and those of suppliers and partners with a proven track record during the year 2018 as deemed so by the independent adjudication committee that sat on Wednesday 5th of June 2019 in Bulawayo.

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On 31 January 2019, ZIMRA Region 3 held a Breakfast meeting to discuss highlights of the 2019 budget announced by the minister of Finance on 22 November 2018. The meeting was held in line with the CG’s thrust of building partnerships with stakeholders.

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The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, (ZIMRA) hosted the annual Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) stakeholders’ breakfast meeting at Cresta Churchill Hotel, Bulawayo on April 25, 2024. The ZIMRA hosted event was held under the theme, “Embracing Innovation for Revenue Collection, Trade Facilitation and Travel.”

The ZIMRA annual event which seeks to reinforce cordial relations between the Authority and its stakeholders provides a platform for tax collectors and taxpayers to get together and discuss issues of economic importance in developing the nation.

Addressing guests, Acting Commissioner General for ZIMRA at the function, Mr Batsirayi Chadzingwa underscored the need for ZIMRA and its stakeholders to discuss issues of economic significance for nation building.

“ZIMRA has been progressively successful through mobilisation of resources for the country. We hope this discussion platform will continue to give us opportunities to craft ways of enhancing the well-being of our nation through growth enhancement and economic efficiency,” said Mr Chadzingwa

“As ZIMRA, we commend business for the hard work and sterling efforts in contributing towards revenue collection which has shown the Authority’s commitment in complementing the country’s economic revival efforts,” added Mr Chadzingwa.

ZIMRA has embraced creative technological and innovative domestic taxes and customs processes and introduced quite a number of innovative strategies to improve systems.

The TaRMS premier project was rolled out on 29 February 2024 while the Tax Agent Module successfully went live on 1 March 2024.

A substantial number of taxpayers have embraced TaRMS and ZIMRA has witnessed an increase in the number of taxpayers who have on-boarded.

“I am pleased to share that the performance of TaRMS is top notch and it is a user friendly system. This is the way to go and indeed with this efficiency ZIMRA will collect much revenue for the nation through a simplified tax system,” said a taxpayer at the breakfast meeting.

ZIMRA has also embraced the Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window (ZESW) which was introduced as part of measures to enhance efficient clearance of legitimate traffic and trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry.

The objective of the ZESW is to improve trade facilitation and to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in pursuing the goals of revenue collection, enforcement of trade laws, social protection, and providing business intelligence to the government.

Zimbabwe provides the gateway to Africa through the north and south corridor, hence efficient trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry is key for the region’s rapid economic growth.

ZIMRA is also using Drones – which is going to go a long way in customs surveillance and monitoring at ports of entry together with introduction of the Contact Centre to improved processes as ZIMRA has deliberately put Customer Centricity as its core focus in recent months and the contact centre adds to the already existing effort to improve service.

In attendance at the breakfast meeting were ZIMRA Board members, Ms Ruth Ncube, Mr Bongani Khumalo and Mr Johnsai Dewah, Executive Management, management and staff of ZIMRA, stakeholders, clients and captains of industry.

The business community seems to be taking seriously the ZIMRA client education initiatives, if numbers which attended the Mutare Breakfast meeting are anything to go by. The breakfast meeting was convened by the ZIMRA management team in Mutare to explain contents of the 2019 National budget and how it impacts on business operations. The meeting was attended by players in the Mutare business community, Small and Medium Enterprises representatives, and a number of associations in the freight and forwarding industry.

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As part of its stakeholder relationship-building programme, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) commemorated the International Customs Day in Victoria Falls with attendees coming from various players in the freight forwarding industry, security services, local government including the Victoria Falls Mayor and the District Administrator and a delegation from the Zambia Revenue Authority. The theme for this year’s event was “SMART borders for seamless Trade, Travel and Transport.”

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As part of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) Business Processes Re-engineering, ZIMRA has launched Release 2 of the Tax and Revenue Management System (TaRMS) and the system which is now live starting 29 February 2024 amid extensive change management awareness sessions country-wide.

TaRMS project Manager Mrs Gamuchirai Makwangudze is elated at the recent development.

“Great milestone this is. Well-done to us all as a team and congratulations to everyone. We are all very excited and appreciate the amount of work and effort which has been put into this critical Project to this point,” she said.

Currently TaRMS has made head-ways in integration of TaRMS with disparate Business As Usual (BAU) Applications (Civil Registry, Registrar of Deeds & Companies, Banks, SAP FI has been completed, FDMS and working on integrating ASYCUDA.

TaRMS Release 1 was successfully launched in two phases:

Phase 1 – Two (2) Modules, User Management and Taxpayer Registration were launched on 12 October 2023 

Phase 2 - Six (6) modules were successfully launched on 6 December 2023. These are Return Management, Payments Management, Taxpayer Accounting, Debt Management, Refunds Management and Revenue Accounting.

Training of ZIMRA Officials, Tax Agents and Taxpayers for Release 2 started on 14 February 2024 and is still in progress while taxpayer queries are now channeled through the ZIMRA Contact Centre. The launch of Release 3 is set for 1^st of August 2024.

Taxpayers, Tax Agents and ZIMRA Officials have been working together to embrace TaRMS. There was a negative perception on TaRMS at introduction but the issues have been resolved and all stakeholders have begun to appreciate the convenience which the system brings with 103,859. taxpayers having been registered so far, 36,745 have registered as new Taxpayers and 67,114 have on-boarded.

The introduction of TaRMS is part of the organisation’s focus on simplifying business processes for the convenience of Taxpayers. ZIMRA is key in the national transformation and economic viability of Zimbabwe towards its vision 2030. Hence the need for ZIMRA to change its processes to facilitate ease of doing business. TaRMS is the new system for automating Domestic Taxes processes, replacing the (SAP TRM).

ZIMRA has been facing a series of system challenges in the provision of its services to its Taxpayers through SAP TRM under Domestic Taxes Division.

Players from the tourism sector took some time to meet with ZIMRA Region 2 to discuss challenges being faced in the industry and how to improve the modalities of doing business in the sector.

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The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), recently took part in the Minex Southern Region Expo and Conference held in Zvishavane, where it emphasised that it was imperative for miners to comply with taxation and customs laws.

The event, organised by Minex is a platform for small-scale miners, aimed to unite numerous mining suppliers, producers, and manufacturers for collaboration and the exchange of innovations. The primary focus of ZIMRA's participation at the event was to educate and implore small-scale miners to comply with tax regulations by registering with ZIMRA through the newly introduced TaRMS system.

Mr Munyaradzi Hwengwere, the Chairman of Minex, highlighted that miners need to hid the call for compliance. “For small-scale miners to progress to medium and high scales, they must register for taxes and comply. The cost of non-compliance is too heavy. I urge all miners to do what is necessary," he said during the conference.

Adding weight at the conference, Mr Godfrey Ziwumburu, the Acting Station Manager for Masvingo, Chiredzi, and Zvishavane, stressed that compliance was imperative to boost the economy.

“Compliance enables miners to obtain Tax Clearances, which are necessary for conducting business and accessing opportunities in the market. This is crucial in building financial resources for a better Zimbabwe,” said Mr Ziwumburu.

Young Miners Federation (YMF) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Payne Kupfuwa who also took part during the event urged small-scale miners to formalise their operations and treat mining as a business, not just a way of survival.

 

Miners were educated on the benefits of tax and customs compliance during the event, such as the VAT deferment provision which is granted to miners on importation of some capital equipment for the exclusive use in mining. Mr Simon Ganyani, from ZIMRA's Zvishavane office, took the opportunity to explain tax and customs issues.  He highlighted that the mining sector is heavily incentivised for a good reason, emphasizing the need for compliance.

Participants pointed out that the extractive sector, including mining, often operates informally on a large scale. They stressed the importance of organisations like ZIMRA and EMA being visible and actively educating miners, as the sector has the potential to make a significant contribution to the country's tax base.

ZIMRA has demonstrated unwavering commitment to tackling taxpayers’ challenges and promoting compliance by actively engaging in exhibitions that prioritize client education. The organisation has implemented a range of innovative measures to enhance compliance, such as the introduction of TaRMS and the Single Window initiative, FDMS among others.

The expo and conference were attended by various stakeholders, including the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), alongside other exhibitors.

Dear  Stakeholder and Taxpayers

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