Step up measures to expand tax base

Government should step up measures to increase taxation, which is an essential instrument for generating revenue, fostering economic growth and sustainability and enhancing State responsiveness.

With the swelling  cost constraints, the government faces a serious threat from the reliance on  a few large taxpayers and  needs to broaden  its tax base including roping in  the informal sector.

It comes as ZIMRA, the nation’s tax collector, is also struggling to meet its revenue collection projections.

This is mostly because  of  declining revenue base that  has been made worse  by a  contracting economy that  has been further damaged by company closures and  a rise in job losses.

Consequently, the government, which is heavily dependent on tax revenue to fund its operations due to a lack of budgetary support from the donor community, is struggling to control recurrent expenditure.

As a result, as the economic crisis has deepened, Cabinet, this week, decided to reduce its labour force in an attempt to balance  the  growing cost constraints with the shrinking tax base..

The dire situation was confirmed by the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere.

According to Dr Muswere the decision was reached following a job appraisal exercise that the Public Service Commission carried out across 21 government line Ministries in order to determine the composition and value of jobs and functions  in government.

“The key findings of the evaluation exercise included the advancement via grade system which violates the principles of job evaluation that a job must maintain its grade throughout its lifetime unless the duties of the job have changed to warrant regrading, functional duplications and overlaps in roles within and across line Ministries, the duties and jobs of chief directors and directors being identical which situation must render one of the jobs redundant, the existence of more managerial jobs than non-managerial jobs, and the prevalence of dead-end jobs for specialists.

The findings of the job evaluation will result in the review of manning levels across all line Ministries at national and sub-national levels, rationalisation of staff, upskilling and re-skilling of members, adoption of a new compensation framework and the implementation of a new salary structure to conform with the principle of equal pay for equal work,” Dr Muswere said.

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