NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, December 9, 2016

Zimbabwe telecommunications companies are in for another fiscal whammy – a new 5 cents levy on every US$1 worth of airtime and data top ups which will go into a Health Fund to resource the country’s ailing health delivery sector.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Thursday that the ICT sector’s budget allocation of US$17.1 million will be utilised to develop e-government platforms, although US$4.3 million will go towards employee and operational costs.

The government has parastatals presiding over fixed and mobile companies TelOne and NetOne, among other ICT firms such as Zarnet which has snapped up majority control in Telecel Zimbabwe.

“The … allocations will be complemented by resources mobilised from statutory funds, US$11.7 million, parastatals’ own resources of US$26.9 million and US$87.4 million from loan financing,” Chinamasa said, reading out the 2017 budget statement.

However, mobile operators in Zimbabwe are set have an additional fiscal burden on their revenues and this time it has come in the form of a levy on airtime top ups for voice and data. The government is also forcing mobile operators in Zimbabwe to reduce tariffs for voice telephony services.