Zimbabwe’ Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube delivered the 2025 Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday. Picture: Supplied/ZimTreasury/X
Zimbabwe’ Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube last week unveiled a suite of new taxes, including taxes on sports betting and popular fast-foods such as French fries, burgers and pizza, in a bid to grow the government revenue collections amidst persistent fiscal challenges plaguing the country’s economy.
Zimbabwe has long struggled for fiscal stability, with the country’s efforts to grow the formal economy frustrated by incessant power outages.
So dire have blackouts been in Zimbabwe that Ncube’s 2025 Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday was disrupted by a power outage, with companies and businesses adjusting to daily production disruptions.
“Government is aware of the country’s electricity supply gap which continues to weigh down on economic growth and social progress,” Ncube said.
As Zimbabwe counts its losses from the power outages, private sector investors, including South African-owned mining companies such as Zimplats and Chinese corporations, are investing into power plants. Some of these are, however, only expected to come onstream starting at the end of next year.
“Bold measures and reforms, such as lower restrictions on self-generation and crowding in private sector investment will be instituted to increase domestic electricity generation and curb power cuts,” explained Ncube.
Zimbabwe’s economic growth has been projected at a lowly 2% for this year. Low metal prices, a poor agricultural season and other headwinds that hobbled Zimbabwe’s economy this year are however expected to improve in the outlook.
For example, the key agriculture sector, which was initially projected to contract by -21%, is now expected to contract by -15% on account of better than anticipated output on wheat and dairy.
Nonetheless, lower performance in mining and manufacturing sectors prompted the government to maintain the overall growth forecast of 2% for this year.
“In the outlook, economic growth is now projected at 6% in 2025, slightly below the initial forecast of 6.5%. The projected strong economic performance is expected to emanate from the recovery in the agriculture sector, which is poised to grow by 12.8%, electricity generation by 10.6%, information technology by 9.9% and by mining 5.6%,” reads a part of the 2025 budget statement.
To boost government coffers, Ncube has introduced new taxes on betting punters who will be levied a 10% levy on their earnings.
A new 0.5% tax has also been proposed under the 2025 budget on fast foods with effect from the beginning of next year.
The tax will target pizza, burgers, hot dogs, tacos and French fries among others.
“The 2025 Budget Statement was presented in backdrop of a tough and challenging year for the working people of Zimbabwe. A year in which the citizen had been abused by extreme levels of inflation, emasculation by a rigged exchange rate, extortionate taxes,power shortages and poverty,” Ncube said.
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