The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, (ZIMRA) hosted the annual Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) stakeholders’ breakfast meeting at Cresta Churchill Hotel, Bulawayo on April 25, 2024. The ZIMRA hosted event was held under the theme, “Embracing Innovation for Revenue Collection, Trade Facilitation and Travel.”

The ZIMRA annual event which seeks to reinforce cordial relations between the Authority and its stakeholders provides a platform for tax collectors and taxpayers to get together and discuss issues of economic importance in developing the nation.

Addressing guests, Acting Commissioner General for ZIMRA at the function, Mr Batsirayi Chadzingwa underscored the need for ZIMRA and its stakeholders to discuss issues of economic significance for nation building.

“ZIMRA has been progressively successful through mobilisation of resources for the country. We hope this discussion platform will continue to give us opportunities to craft ways of enhancing the well-being of our nation through growth enhancement and economic efficiency,” said Mr Chadzingwa

“As ZIMRA, we commend business for the hard work and sterling efforts in contributing towards revenue collection which has shown the Authority’s commitment in complementing the country’s economic revival efforts,” added Mr Chadzingwa.

ZIMRA has embraced creative technological and innovative domestic taxes and customs processes and introduced quite a number of innovative strategies to improve systems.

The TaRMS premier project was rolled out on 29 February 2024 while the Tax Agent Module successfully went live on 1 March 2024.

A substantial number of taxpayers have embraced TaRMS and ZIMRA has witnessed an increase in the number of taxpayers who have on-boarded.

“I am pleased to share that the performance of TaRMS is top notch and it is a user friendly system. This is the way to go and indeed with this efficiency ZIMRA will collect much revenue for the nation through a simplified tax system,” said a taxpayer at the breakfast meeting.

ZIMRA has also embraced the Zimbabwe Electronic Single Window (ZESW) which was introduced as part of measures to enhance efficient clearance of legitimate traffic and trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry.

The objective of the ZESW is to improve trade facilitation and to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in pursuing the goals of revenue collection, enforcement of trade laws, social protection, and providing business intelligence to the government.

Zimbabwe provides the gateway to Africa through the north and south corridor, hence efficient trade facilitation at the country’s ports of entry is key for the region’s rapid economic growth.

ZIMRA is also using Drones – which is going to go a long way in customs surveillance and monitoring at ports of entry together with introduction of the Contact Centre to improved processes as ZIMRA has deliberately put Customer Centricity as its core focus in recent months and the contact centre adds to the already existing effort to improve service.

In attendance at the breakfast meeting were ZIMRA Board members, Ms Ruth Ncube, Mr Bongani Khumalo and Mr Johnsai Dewah, Executive Management, management and staff of ZIMRA, stakeholders, clients and captains of industry.