Zimbabwe's finance minister on Thursday announced a raft of tax hikes, including on mobile phones, in a bid to boost dwindling government revenue as economic growth stalls. Harare is facing a revenue crisis so severe it has been forced to stagger civil servants' pay days as businesses have closed, foreign investment has slumped and imports have risen. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa cut his output for economic growth to 3.1 percent this year, from a previous forecast of 6.1 percent, "in view of under-performance in manufacturing". To boost government coffers, Chinamasa announced a five percent increase in mobile phone airtime and a 25 percent import duty on mobile phone handsets.



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