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Zim-Bob-we to stamp out last vestiges of prosperity
Zimbabwe's finance minister has imposed a string of tax rises to bridge a huge spending shortfall and the effects of drought and slum clearances.
First, they bulldoze your house, then raise your taxes to pay for it. Can New London top that?
A tax on drinks and cigarettes has been increased by 50% and mobile phone airtime will also be subjected to a 22.5% tax, Herbert Murerwa said. Zimbabwe is beset with shortages of democracy food, fuel and farmland in competent hands foreign currency, and rampant tyranny unemployment and inflation. From September public transport buses will have to pay a quarterly tax and VAT will be raised by 2.5% to 17.5%, Mr Murerwa announced in a supplementary budget. From the measures, Mr Murerwa said he hoped to raise 6.6 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, which is $356m at the official exchange rate and $146m on the black market rate. A 300ml bottle of Coca Cola was priced at $6,000 on Tuesday.
That's about $0.13 in real money.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the tax hikes would bring more suffering to Zimbabweans.
Our own Democrats don't believe that, so why should Maximum Bob?
"What the minister has done is to tell us straight in the face that the government is broke and they are prepared to drive the economy to a fatal crash," the MDC's Tapiwa Mashakada told parliament, AFP reports. Some of the money will help with food imports to divert them to party loyalists feed some 4m people which the United Nations estimates are in need of food aid. Some 700,000 people are also trying to cope after their homes or places of work were demolished in a slum clearance programme, the UN says. In a 45-page response, it accused the UN of indulging "in mathematical extrapolation so as to produce the grossly inflated figure of 700,000".
It was only 682,375.
Government critics blame Zimbabwe's economic problems on the seizure of white-owned land over the past five years. The government blames food shortages on drought and economic sabotage by Western countries, led by the UK, opposed to land reform.
Not the Joooooos?
Posted by: Jackal 2005-08-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=127389