Finance Bill, 2024 (No. 2) H.B. 12, 2024

This is a Bill — the Finance (No. 2) Bill, 2024, H.B. 12 of 2024 — and not law as published. It would give effect to the fiscal measures announced by the Minister of Finance in the National Budget Statement of 28 November 2024, amending the Finance Act, Income Tax Act, VAT Act, Customs and Excise Act, Gold Trade Act, Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, Railways Act, Agricultural Finance Act, POSB Act, Public Entities Corporate Governance Act and Public Finance Management Act.

On personal tax, the local currency PAYE bands would be reset from the 2025 year of assessment: nothing on the first ZWG33 600, then 20% to ZWG100 800, 25% to ZWG336 000, 30% to ZWG672 000, 35% to ZWG1 008 000 and 40% above that.

Two new consumption taxes stand out. A fast food surcharge of 1% would apply to the sale value, VAT inclusive, of pizza, burgers, hot dogs, shawarma, tacos, French fries, chicken and doughnuts sold by any restaurant, take-away, supermarket, retail outlet, hotel or lodge — whether pre-packaged or prepared on the premises, eat-in or take-away. And a surcharge of 20% would apply to disposable plastic carrier bags, charged on the sale value for manufacturers and on the CIF value per consignment for importers.

On betting, bookmakers would pay 3% of gross monthly takings and sports betting punters 10% of gross winnings. On minerals, the levy on the gross value of lithium, black granite, quarry stones and dimensional stone stays at 1% but would have to be paid in the currency of trade. The Bill would also declare that dominium in subsoil resources vests in the President, and would treat mining royalties as a tax for assessment purposes.

Other measures flagged in the memorandum include a review of special economic zone incentives — with existing licensed investors' tax holidays deemed to expire at the end of the first five years of the licence — deductibility of royalty fees, taxation of the emerging sector, withholding tax on the supply of recyclable plastics, income tax exemption for building societies, capital gains tax on marketable securities, special capital gains tax on the transfer of mining rights, VAT deferment for the energy sector, automatic VAT registration for tenders above a threshold, new powers to seize storage devices, stock in trade and cash, and amendments to the Gold Trade Act to tighten reporting and compliance in gold dealing in support of the ZiG.

Two administrative changes would bite on banks and payment intermediaries: the window for remitting collected revenue would shorten from forty-eight to twenty-four hours, and the penalty rate for late remittance would change from 200% to the bank policy rate plus 5%.

A caveat on completeness: this is a very long Bill and the extract available here was cut off at clause 11 of 55. The account of the later clauses above comes from the Bill's own explanatory memorandum rather than from the enacting text, so rates and thresholds for those measures should be read in the Bill or in the resulting Act. The measures were subsequently enacted as the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, Act 7 of 2024, gazetted on 31 December 2024. Because this is a Bill, no effective date is recorded.

The drafting also carries visible slips — the memorandum has no note for clause 2, several clause cross-references do not match, and clause 46 refers to the "Golf Trade Act" where the Gold Trade Act is meant.