Mthuli Ncube uses IMTT outrage to trick Zimbabweans into paying even more tax

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

For weeks, Zimbabweans have been crying out against the extortionate Intermediated Money Transfer Tax (IMTT), a levy that has become synonymous with state greed and the suffocation of both business and ordinary citizens.

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Even the ruling ZANU-PF party, during its recent Annual People’s Conference in Mutare, felt compelled to pass a resolution calling for its removal—a rare public acknowledgement of the suffering IMTT has caused.

So when Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube stood up today to announce the 2026 National Budget Statement, many Zimbabweans might have been forgiven for believing that government had finally bowed to pressure.

But a closer look at what was announced reveals something far more cynical: not an act of listening, but a calculated sleight of hand designed to make citizens pay more than ever before.

Ncube has reduced IMTT on Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) transactions from 2% to 1.5% while keeping the levy on US dollar transactions at 2%.

On the surface, this looks like a concession—an attempt to show responsiveness to business complaints and public outrage.

But the reality is that the overwhelming majority of transactions in Zimbabwe occur in USD, not ZiG.

Reducing IMTT on the less-used currency while leaving the dominant one untouched is a cosmetic gesture meant to create the illusion of reform.

It is a political performance: a veneer of sympathy masking the same extractive impulse.

To make matters worse, Ncube simultaneously raised Value Added Tax (VAT) from 15% to 15.5%, under the guise of compensating for the revenue lost from the slight reduction in ZiG IMTT.

This may appear small on paper, but its impact is devastating.

VAT affects every Zimbabwean, regardless of currency used, economic class, or sector.

It is paid on food, electricity, basic goods, and essential services.

Increasing VAT is effectively increasing the price of living in a country where most people already live below the poverty line.

When combined with a still-intact 2% IMTT on the dominant USD system, this is not tax relief—it is tax intensification.

Given this, one must ask: was this Ncube’s plan all along?

To strategically “reduce” a tax where it matters least, trumpet that reduction as evidence of listening, and then quietly impose a more far-reaching tax increase that affects everyone?

It is difficult to see today’s announcement as anything other than a clever trick designed to deflect public anger, while smuggling in a broader, more punishing tax burden.

The logic behind IMTT has long since collapsed.

When Mthuli Ncube introduced it in October 2018, he justified the tax by claiming it was a necessary tool to extract revenue from the informal sector, which he accused of evading taxation.

It was, he said, a creative way of capturing revenue outside the formal channels.

But this assumption was fundamentally flawed from the beginning.

Informal traders do not use electronic money—they never have.

They transact almost entirely in cash, especially in US dollars.

Go to Mbare, Sakubva, Kwekwe CBD, or any township market, and you will struggle to find a trader willing to accept electronic payment.

They demand cash and, in most cases, USD cash.

IMTT never touched them.

Instead, the tax fell disproportionately—and aggressively—on the formal sector.

Companies that already pay corporate tax, PAYE, VAT, and ZIMRA levies were hit again each time they transacted electronically.

The cost of doing business surged.

And like all costs, this was promptly passed on to consumers through higher prices for goods and services.

Zimbabweans paid IMTT indirectly at the tills, long before they paid it directly on their EcoCash, bank-to-bank, or ZIPIT transfers.

In effect, IMTT became a tax on existence in a country where the only viable way to transact was electronic.

Now Ncube has doubled down.

Instead of scrapping the tax or significantly reducing it across all currencies, he has chosen to maintain the most punishing version of it—2% on USD transactions—while introducing a VAT increase that will drive prices even higher.

This is a tax package that squeezes business from above and consumers from below, leaving both gasping for air.

The most troubling question is why the Minister appears determined to extract more from people who already have so little.

A government genuinely concerned about economic growth would relieve the pressure on business, not tighten it.

It would reduce taxes on essential transactions to stimulate activity, not punish the most active parts of the economy.

But what Zimbabweans see in this budget is the opposite: a government that treats its people not as citizens to be empowered but as revenue sources to be drained.

This budget is anti-business and anti-poor.

It undermines investment, increases operational costs, fuels price hikes, and erodes purchasing power.

It takes more from Zimbabweans than before the budget was presented, despite pretending to offer relief.

It is a budget crafted with political optics in mind—not economic recovery, not social welfare, not genuine reform, and certainly not the wellbeing of the ordinary Zimbabwean.

Worse still, it exploits the public outcry over IMTT by offering a token reduction where it hardly matters, then compensating for that token gesture with a broader, more damaging tax increase.

This is the deception at the heart of today’s announcement.

It is less a budget than a confidence trick—a fiscal feja-feja masquerading as reform.

The hand you are told to watch is not the hand doing the real work.

Zimbabweans demanded relief, and instead, they got an even heavier burden dressed up as responsiveness.

Today’s measures will push more businesses to the brink, force more families into poverty, and make basic survival even more difficult.

Instead of correcting the mistakes of the past six years, Ncube has entrenched them.

Instead of reversing harmful taxes, he has institutionalized them.

Instead of listening, he has pretended to listen.

Zimbabweans deserve a tax regime that is fair, rational, and grounded in economic reality—not one built on illusions, misdirection, and political theatrics.

Ncube’s latest budget may be packaged as a gesture of relief, but in truth, it is a calculated move to extract even more from people who have nothing left to give.

It is, quite simply, a trick—one that Zimbabweans can no longer afford to fall for.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/