It is very disappointing to note that two big timber producing companies in Nyanga are contributing to the collapse of the industry and help to discredit the government’s fiscal system by pumping timber into the informal sector where the timber is sold at a song without.
The tax authorities are being prejudiced of huge sums of money through an organised tax evasion racket by people hiding behind government programmes such as indigenisation, empowerment or Zim- asset program.
The informal sector has taken over the timber industry and it is sad to note that formal companies are behind this. The failure by the informal sector to remit tax is an issue of great concern. Now some “friends” from China have invaded the timber market and are sweeping the eastern highlands bare and nothing is flowing into the fiscal system.
Those companies that have been operating within the confines of the law have now been forced into liquidation and are winding down their operations to pay off workers who have been rendered jobless by the unfair distribution and selling of timber in the informal market.
The formal timber companies with overheads have been have been competing with people operating under trees who are hiding behind politics to evade taxation. The serious irregularities and unfair trading practices in the timber sector now require the attention of President Robert Mugabe’s office for sanity to prevail. – Threatened Employee, Chimanimani
Post published in: Letters to the Editor