THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has accused the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) of undermining government projects after the tax collector garnished its bank accounts.
by XOLISANI NCUBE
Zinara board chairman Albert Mugabe made the claims when he appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development chaired by Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna.
Mugabe said Zinara was “worried with the move by Zimra to garnish their accounts in pursuit of tax on loaned money meant for road rehabilitation”.
Zinara received $206 million from a South African bank to rehabilitate the Plumtree-Mutare Highway, but Zimra charged $31 million value-added tax (VAT) on the loan.
Mugabe said Zimra demanded $38,8 million as VAT, but the money had not yet been paid.
In a bid to recover the money, Zimra garnished Zinara accounts and this contributed to some parts of the projects not being done to satisfaction as it was now underfunded.
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“We are raising this with you, honourable members, that how can a national project be taxed?” Mugabe queried.
“You are complaining that some parts on the road were not done properly, it’s because of the move by Zimra.
“The contractor had to borrow some money on his own as our account had been garnished.”
Mugabe said Zimra should have considered the fact that the money involved had been borrowed and was being used on a “national project”.
He said the Plumtree-Mutare Highway was almost complete with minor works left to be done.
Mugabe told the committee that Zinara wanted to have the authority to collect all funds linked to vehicle use which includes money generated from roadside advertisements, parking fees and other road user fees.
Already, the authority collects vehicle licence fees and tollgate fees for onward transmission to various road authorities such as local authorities and other government agencies.
Mugabe said last year, Zinara ranked in close to $27 million from vehicles’ licence fees, an amount he said was not even adequate to repair Harare’s roads network.
Local authorities have accused Zinara of unfairly distributing the collected revenue without paying regard to the collection pattern and the scale of demand.
