The ManicaPost
Zimbabwe’s largest telecommunications company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has paid $1,2 billion dollars to Government in taxes since dollarisation, a senior official has said.
The country’s tax base has been shrinking on the back of a challenging economic environment that has resulted in company closures while others downsized operations.
Speaking about the group’s contribution to national economy, chairman Dr James Myers said the telecoms company pays 23 percent of its earnings in taxes to Government.
This is inclusive of value added tax, licence fees, excise duties and contributions to the Universal Services Fund. Indications are that Econet is also the biggest contributor to the USF by virtue of being the biggest operator.
“This is in addition to paying corporate taxes on profits, import duties, other levies to councils and other statutory bodies,” said Dr Myers.
“Cumulative taxes and levies paid to central Government and statutory bodies since dollarisation now stand at $1,2 billion,” he said.
In line with this, Econet, with a subscriber base of over 10 million as at August 31, 2016, has been recognised as the biggest contributor to VAT for the tax year ended December 31, 2015.
According to Dr Myers, the telecoms company has directly or indirectly provided employment to over 50 000 people in airtime dealers, retailers of devices, EcoCash agents and other telecommunications related services.
He added the group’s mobile money service and micro-insurance services, EcoCash and EcoSure have also played their part towards enhancing financial inclusion by allowing people formerly excluded from formal financial services to access financial services.
Subscribers have also resorted to mobile money services for convenience. In the six months to August 31, 2016, the mobile financial services unit recorded 13 percent increase in revenue.
The country has been experiencing cash shortages in banks resulting in increase in use of plastic money as well as mobile money platforms.
In line with this and the need to boost the mobile money unit, the group entered into partnerships with international money transfer agencies inclusive of MoneyGram, Western Union and World remit.
“As liquidity challenges have escalated since January 2016, EcoCash has become an important method of payment for goods and services.
“EcoCash now has partnerships with nine various MTAs. Our EcoCash platform continues to grow supported by a wide network of agents and merchants that accept EcoCash as a mode of payment,” said Dr Myers. – BH24..
