Zimbabwe
posts budget deficit of $47,9 billion
By
Lebo Nkatazo
ZIMBABWE
surpassed all its tax collection targets for 2006 but its appetite for
using money saw it posting a budget deficit of $47,9 billion during the
same period, a government bulletin.
“Revenue collections of 2006 during the last quarter
of 2006 continued on a positive note, with November and December collections
amounting to $72,7 billion and $116,7 billion against a target of $69,1
billion and $86,8 billion, respectively,” it said.
“Total revenue collections for 2006 were $417,3
billion, surpassing the annual target of $320,2 billion by 30percent.
Tax revenue accounted $404,3 billion of total revenues, while $12,5
billion was raised from non tax sources.”
The quarterly treasury bulletin, which is published by the Ministry
of Finance, was released last Friday following its suspension in 2006.
The finance ministry attributed this to “improved tax efforts
by Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) .“
Value Added Tax (VAR) recorded the largest contribution at 27 percent
of total revenue, followed by Payee As You Earn (PAYE) and Company Tax
that
contributed 24 and 23 percent of total revenue respectively.
“Vat collections in 2006 amounted to $109,7 billion against a
target of $100
billion. Of this local sales, recorded $81,2 billion, whilst imports
accounted
for $27,1 billion,” the bulletin said.
On
Pay As You Earn, the bulletin said: “Cumulative collections for
2006 amounted to $96,3 billion, surpassing the annual target of $ 80
billion by 30 percent.
"PAYe
collections benefited from the quarterly wage and salary adjustments
adopted during the course of the year.”
Customs duty
contributed $42, 64 billion against a 2006 target of $39,99 billion,
while corporate tax brought in $93,5 billion against a target of $55
billion during the same period.
The Ministry
of Finance bulletin said Tax collections on dividends and interest on
both resident non-resident Zimbabweans amounted to $7,1 billion and
$5,4 billion against targets of $6,6 billion and $5,5 billion respectively.
Excise duty,
which is levied on beer, tobacco, wines, spirits as well as second hand
motor vehicles surpassed the target by 18 percent to reach $14, 1 billion.
Tax collections
on dividends and interest on both resident and non-resident Zimbabweans
also surpassed targets.
It added:
“Collections for 2006 amounted to $32,4 billion against a target
of $15,9 billion giving a positive variance of 47percent.
“With
total 2006 budget expenditures of $465,3 billion and revenue collections
of 417,3 billion for the year, the overall budget deficit for the year
was $47, 9 billion. The deficit was entirely financed from the domestic
market largely through the issuance of short term paper."
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