The government’s is mulling to increase surtax for imported second-hand vehicles .Surtax is an additional tax on something already taxed, especially a higher rate of tax on incomes above a certain level. But they said that it will only be made after discussions with motor industry stakeholders, an official has said at the official launch of the Zimbabwe Motor Industry Development Policy (ZMIDP) in Harare this week.
Industry, Commerce and Enterprise Development acting permanent secretary Angelica Katuruza said “I cannot say offhand what level we may reduce surtax by or increase by, but as part of the implementation matrix we intend to look at the market, issues at hand and look at them holistically. And, together with concerned stakeholders, we will come up with a level of surtax but I cannot say offhand by how much will the surtax be,”
Zimbabwe does has the capacity to manufacture or assemble cars for the local market economically because the country does not have the economies of scale, with global trends suggesting developing countries are moving away from manufacturing vehicles, motor industry experts say.
“You cannot import a second-hand vehicle into Kenya, which is over eight years and that is the direction we should be looking at to say we need to set a cap not to allow old vehicles into the country,” Standards Association of Zimbabwe director-general Eve Gadzikwa said.
Second-hand cars are attractive to Zimbabweans because of their affordability.
