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.