It has happened before in Ghana and Kenya and now it’s happening in Zimbabwe. The country’s finance minister has announced that the government will put a 25% tax on all mobile phones imported to the country in a move to help boost government revenues following a slowdown in the mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors.
Due to a lack of foreign investment, power shortages and several company closures, the country forecasts its economy to rgow by 3.1% as there have been reduced revenue collections, low exports and imports.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the 25% tax on mobile phones and 5% on airtime and data will help the government raise money to fund its budget-70% of which is spent on salaries. TechMoran believes this will hinder mobile phone and internet penetration in the country as a whole and will even hinder the startup ecosystem which has been steadily growing due to the uptake of affordable smartphones in the country.
Just recently, President Robert Mugabe was in China in a bid to bail out his country’s bankrupt economy but was said to have returned home without any money but was reported to have signed expensive deals to support ongoing infrastructural repairs and power generation in Zimbabwe.
