MIDWEEK REPORTER
MASVINGO CITY-The Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Prof Mthuli Ncube’s proposed tax on the super rich (which has been compared to the colonial hut tax) will put more burden on the pensioners as they are the majority with houses in the leafy suburbs.
Retired agriculture expert who is based in Masvingo, Dr Jeffreyson Mutimba said they bought the houses long back when they had the resources and were still economically active, but now the situation has completely changed.
“In order to ensure that every person contributes to the fiscus in line with their levels of income, I propose to introduce a wealth tax at a rate of 1 percent of the market values of residential properties with a minimum value of 100,000 U.S. dollars,” Ncube said in his budget statement.
Dr Mutimba cited a number of issues affecting most pensioners like the amount they are being paid per month, frequent visits to hospitals and caring for grandchildren.
“As a pensioner I am more likely to visit the doctor more frequently per month due to chronic diseases that we suffer from as we age and that requires a lot of money considering that the medical aid societies are just useless, either you have a shortfall or its rejected at all, hence one has to pay cash.
“When we bought the houses that the Minister wants to tax we were economically active and the economy was ticking, but the situation is no longer the same as there is rampant unemployment and we cannot afford to rent out the houses because we are staying with our offsprings who cannot afford to buy their own houses because they are unemployed.
“My humble proposal is to first scrap off this hut tax and do enough consultations before imposing the blanket tax, this should be on case by case basis rather than the one size fits all,” said the respected retired agriculturist.
He added that after deductions his pension is only ZW$42 000 and that is not even enough to pay for Council rates.
“We are already struggling to pay council rates and now comes this burden, it is just not fair on pensioners at all, the one size fits all is unacceptable,” he said.
Dr Mutimba who holds a PHD in agriculture extension was the first black Land Development Officer (LDO) in the country and was deployed in Chivi then and rose through the ranks in the Ministry to become under secretary before he retired in 1989.
He went on to work in Ethiopia for the International Research Centre and came back to teach at the University of Zimbabwe until 2017.
