The ManicaPost
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Business Reporter
The Zimbabwe Revenue authority has been authorised to sell fiscal devices, a move that will considerably reduce the price of the gadgets and mitigate shortages that were created as approved suppliers failed to meet the rising demand of the gadgets.
In a statement, the tax authority said the fiscal devices are already available for sale to all VAT registered operators.
“Notice is hereby given that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has been authorised to sell fiscal devices to Value Added Tax registered operators who are required to use fiscal devices in terms of the Value Added Tax (Fiscalised Recording of Taxable Transactions) Regulations 104 of 2010 as published in the Government Gazzette of 23 June 2017, General Notice 307 of 2017,” read the notice.
The tax authority is selling the devices at between $500 and $600 for an electronic fiscal printer while the electronic fiscal register costs $350 excluding installation fees.
This is considerably lower than the $1 700 that was being charged by some of the approved independent suppliers.
A tax cash register can cost approximately $200 per unit in China where most of the gadgets are being imported from.
But despite accessing the fiscal gadgets at such low prices, the approved suppliers have been failing to meet the growing demand for the devices as companies tried to comply with Government’s fiscalisation directive.
In 2010, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development made regulations in terms of Section 78 of the Value Added Tax Act which require operators to record all transactions using fiscalised devices.
The move to fiscalise all operations will see an improvement in revenue flows into the national purse.
Fiscalisation essentially entails introducing electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) — machines designed for use in businesses for efficient management controls in areas of sales analysis and stock control system — such as electronic tax registers (ETRs), electronic fiscal printers (EFPs) and electronic signature devices (ESDs).
In essence, these devices are designed to capture all sales information and automatically re-route it to the tax authorities who in turn are able to see how much they are owed by companies.
