Zimbabwe needs an attractive tax regime to bring competitive human skills as the government gears to revive economy, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) has said.
ZNCC Mashonaland chairperson, Oswel Dinha said the current tax regime was so punitive that the country is losing human skills to other countries.
Dinha said this while giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary portfolio committee on Industry and Commerce.
Dinha said the issue of skills is key to turning around the economy and taxation played a pivotal role in reviving it. The issue of skills is key for industry to bounce back.
"A company in Zimbabwe might be able to pay the same salary as a South African company for an engineer, for example, but that person would go to South Africa because of high tax regime here," said Dinha.
He said there was need to introduce measures that make people voluntarily comply with tax payment, one of which is introducing low tax regime.
Speaking at the same occasion, ZNCC chief executive Andrew Mutize urged the government to remunerate competitive salaries to civil servants as a way of addressing the demand side of industry.
"The government should address the demand side, you need to put money in civil servants' pockets as a way of addressing the demand side while industry addresses the supply side," said Mutize.
He said the citizenship laws as currently constituted inhibited investment as it criminalises dual citizenship.
A Zimbabwean national, who might have acquired a foreign citizenship at the height of the economic recession, will feel inhibited to contribute meaningfully to Zimbabwe's economy because he is deemed to be no longer a citizen, said Mutize.
He said there was need to portray good image of the country to improve the country's risk profile. This will attract more investors as they will gain confidence in the economy.